


The Leaf: The Story of the Incredibly Gutsy Ninja and His Friends [HIATUS]

by GuMiHo13



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Rewrite, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional Sex, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Friendship/Love, M/M, Multi, POV Alternating, Pre-Naruto Canon Era, Rewrite, Sad with a Happy Ending, Time Travel, Violence, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:00:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 18
Words: 159,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24700465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuMiHo13/pseuds/GuMiHo13
Summary: What if the story of Naruto Uzumaki that you know wasn't the real story? What if the story of Naruto was much bigger than just the one gusty ninja? This is the real story, a story much darker, much more brutal, and much intimate than it was ever told before.The Leaf is my attempt to rewrite the Naruto series from start to finish, keeping some of the of the canon, inventing a lot, and trying to reimagine the story from its very roots. In this story, the ninja world expands far beyond just Naruto and his friends, but at the same time, it gives a more intimate look at all of your favorite characters. The story follows a long timeline, moving between the world before ninjas, the ninja history before Naruto, and the Naruto storyline itself. Main ships are NaruHina, ShikaTema, SasuSaku, but there are multiple minor ships too, with lots of overlapping OCs. Some light inspirations from other series.Ready to read a new version of Naruto?*This story is crossposted on Fanfic.net
Relationships: Aburame Shino/Original Female Character(s), Akimichi Chouji/Original Female Character(s), Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Hatake Kakashi/Original Female Character(s), Hyuuga Hinabi/Sarutobi Konohamaru, Hyuuga Hinata/Original Male Character(s), Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Neji/Tenten, Inuzuka Kiba/Original Female Character(s), Namikaze Minato/Uzumaki Kushina, Nara Shikamaru/Temari, Rock Lee/Original Female Character(s), Sai/Yamanaka Ino, Sarutobi Asuma/Yuuhi Kurenai, Umino Iruka/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 49





	1. Prologue

**This is a fanfic I've wanted to write for a long time, always imagining different ways the Naruto universe could've played out, from the smallest of details to the biggest of story lines. I'm really excited to dive into this.**

**Some general warnings for this story, there will be some pretty graphic depictions of violence and some major character deaths - though the heavy parts of it will come later. And much, much, later there will be some depictions of non-consensual sex/rape. I plan on putting those warnings on those specific chapters when they happen.**

**My goal to have weekly to bi-weekly updates, dependent on my schedule and chapter lengths. With all that said, thanks for being interested in this story, and happy reading.**

**MiHo**

* * *

What, above all, is the essential material for living life? Food. This is what I tell myself every morning when I awake, kneading and pressing noodles for the ramen I will make that day. People need food to live. So, I don’t mind waking at five am every morning, whipping together soft noodles to throw into spiced boiling vats of broth. I’ll grill up meat, cherishing the sizzle of its pink softness when it first hits the burner. A few hours after me, my daughter will awake, cutting up vegetables, wiping off counters, prepping our restaurant for the day. Together we’ll watch as The Leaf Village comes to life, with sun seeping in through the city, casting rays of light over the stone faces of the Hokage. And just as life comes together in the village, everything, eventually, comes together in the pot. We broil, we stir, and we mix and soon we have pots of delicious ramen to feed all the stirring life of the Leaf Village. I pour a bowl of ramen and watch the soft scent of the steam rises up into faces with a smile, and know, I bring life to the village.

And I also observed life too. I’m nearing ninety now; my father opened this ramen shop underneath the reign of the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, soon after the Leaf Village’s founding. He was just a boy then, sixteen and doing the only thing he knew how to do—feed people. It would be years later, under the reign of Tobirama Senju and during the Second Ninja War that I was born. By the time I was old enough to totter between the long racks of noodles, watching my father shape the dough, peace was brought on and Hiruzen Sarutobi had taken over as our Third Hokage. My father told me the secret then, when I was younger and learning the trade—that this ramen shop was magic, because it allowed you to observe life. The wars would go and come, the kages would age or die heroes, and the shadowy faces on the mountains would change. But again and again people return for a hot bowl of ramen and a place to feel safe in at the end of the day. 

“We bring life to this village, my son, and in turn, we are allowed to witness its stories.”

He was right; life continued on and The Leaf Village expanded and grew with each passing war, people died and people lived, the shop had to be rebuilt a good handful of times, and yet people continued to come for ramen. I grew older, and slowly, my father tottered around me while I walked, making sure I maintained the quality he expected. Eventually he passed and I was left with an aching space of what he meant to me. I married to fill that space, with a beautiful wife who gave me a precious little girl. Together we made ramen, and together we witnessed life that came from it.

At one point my wife and I became fond of a young girl—Kushina was her name. She was wily and loud, with long red hair and a hot-blooded attitude to match. The first time she came into the ramen shop she had no money, but instead offered to do an hour’s worth of work for a bowl of hot ramen. She said so with such vitality and sincerity that we offered a bowl for free, demanding only an hour of her time and energy for entertainment, not work. The girl had stories to tell, great energy and vigor, and at the end of her meal she pointed her chopsticks up at the Hokage Mountain and said “just watch, one day I’ll be carved up there.”

Kushina continued to come in, bringing to us joy and stories, and the type of essence and full-hearted belief in life we had never seen before. Kushina reminded us to of how badly we wanted children and when Ayame was born she was the first one there, cooing over our daughter, offering her little gifts, and telling her she was sure to teach her how to be tough. Kushina was a young lady by then and being romanced by the ninja who was rumored to become the next Hokage. When they married and his Hokage candidacy was announced, we asked her, jokingly, if she intended to usurp his position and become Hokage herself. She laughed at us and said “Being the Hokage’s wife is a lot like being Hokage, only you’re not required to be so damn formal all the time!” And then slurped, loudly, to finish off her ramen. Ayame, a toddler by then, and head over heels for Aunty Kushina, giggled and began to mimic the gesture in her own ramen eating. Ayame was thrilled when less than a year later Kushina announced her own pregnancy, climbing into her lap and pressing on her belly.

However, the excitement didn’t last long, for every life in The Leaf Village changed on the night the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked. I had lived through multiple wars and attacks, I had seen, what I believed to be the cruelest acts of man, but I had never seen anything like the Nine-Tailed Beast. Nothing could describe the sheer size of the creature, the redness of its fur, bright like all the blood it shed that night. I had never been more terrified in my entire life. We were preparing to flee, heading to one of the safe houses Minato had prepared for non-ninjas during times of upset, when Kushina showed up. She was heavily pregnant by then, panting and struggling, and she called upon me and my wife, “I don’t know what’s going to happen tonight, but please promise me to protect my baby.” We promised, diligently, before Kushina was dragged away by attendants. In all the panic, we hadn’t realized Kushina had been in labor.

In my worst moments I blamed Kushina. She had made us hesitate, had stopped us for a few moments, so that we finally did flee, the timing wasn’t right. It wasn’t Kushina Uzumaki’s fault that the Nine-Tails crushed a building on top of my wife. I know it’s not her fault. But I am human, and humans have a tendency towards darkness sometimes. I just wish so desperately that my wife was still alive, that Ayame hadn’t witnessed her mother’s own death. And sometimes I know, that if we had left just a few moments earlier, then maybe it wouldn’t have happened.

The aching space left behind by my father had never really gone away and now a new space formed beside him, that of my dead wife. I had to witness, as well, the space my wife left behind in Ayame—she never slurped her ramen anymore. Like many in the village, I don’t quite understand what happened the night of the Nine-Tails attack. I do know that Kushina and Minato didn’t make it, and for a while, I didn’t believe their child had either. About five or six years after the attack, I found out his real fate.

There was a scuffle happening in front of the shop, a gaggle of boys bullying another. I scared them away. The beaten one, instead of laying down as I suspected he would, jumped up and shouted “I’ll show you one day! I’ll be Hokage, and then you’ll know who I am! I’m Naruto Uzumaki!”

For a moment I just stared at him. In looks, he was all Minato, unruly blonde hair and bright blue eyes that lit up with the determination. But the way he held himself, the vitality at which he insisted he was going to be Hokage—it was all Kushina. He carried in him the same life my wife and I first found so appealing in her.

“Hey, you said your name was Uzumaki, right?” I asked him.

“Yeah, what’s it to you,” he said, with the type of sass Kushina would have been proud of.

“You ever try ramen?”

Naruto loved the ramen and treated his food with more respect than I had ever seen anyone else do. He became a regular customer at our place, sometimes paying and sometimes not. Whenever he couldn’t, Ayame would recruit him for some little chores she didn’t want to do herself. He never complained, only attacked it as adamantly as he would do anything, always bursting forth with energy and, I realized, hope. Naruto Uzumaki did not have an easy life, he lacked in both parents and friends—but I had never witnessed a human life filled with such hope and determination. The ninjas often speak of the “will of fire,” of a determination they all wanted to carry within themselves. And Naruto, he was the walking epitome of the will of fire. I enjoyed watching Naruto grow as much as I enjoyed watching Kushina grow, and I saw more and more of her in him every day. He never mentioned her and neither did I. I understood that Naruto did not know who his parents were, and I also understood that I should not be the one to tell him.

As I said, I’m nearing ninety now. I’m the one who totters around Ayame, making sure she upholds the quality I expect our restaurant to deliver. She runs the place now, I only just help in the mornings. A few years ago, we hired new workers so we could expand and lately, one of them has been asking me for my permission to propose to Ayame. When I see them working together, I see reflection of my younger self and my wife. I know my daughter will be okay when I’m gone. I spend my days now doing what we elderly do best, lounging around and reminiscing about how things were in the old days. Despite the entirety of the village being destroyed during the Fourth Ninja War, we’ve always rebuilt the shop in the same place, off the main street and right under the shadow of the Hokage Mountain. Kushina never made it up there, but both the solemn faces of her husband and son stare out at me now. I dwell on Naruto’s for a moment, wondering if he’ll bring his children in for a bowl of ramen, as he often does on the weekends.

Naruto Uzumaki became a hero among heroes. He excelled more than anyone, even himself, ever could have hoped. The thing is though, when you learn to witness life, you learn that the heroic stories aren’t always what they seem. Yes, Naruto was certainly heroic, but unlike some accounts, the story wasn’t just about him. Life isn’t just one person, life is all the connections one makes throughout life, all the overlapping stories that make up its entirety. If there’s anything I’ll do in my old age, it will be that, it will be to tell the story as it should be.

My accounts may sometimes be mixed up, and they may not be what you know was exactly true, but let me tell you this, I’ve had a more intimate perspective on the people of the Leaf Village than any writer could ever claim to have. I wouldn’t be exaggerating when I say my authority is sound, because the story of Naruto Uzumaki isn’t just a story of Naruto, it’s the story of the incredibly gusty ninja—and his friends.

* * *

It would make sense that the story begins when Naruto entered the academy, at the ripe age of eight, as every person with an affinity for being a shinobi does. It was here that the first strands of connection made their way through the story. It was here that Naruto first stumbled upon the other ninja who would become the friends, whose names and faces and stories are too often lost when recalling the story of Naruto Uzumaki.

Hinata Hygua, with her light eyes turned toward the ground, casting a tentative look at the looming eyes of the academy teacher. Shikamaru Naru, walking through the door with a loud yawn and then, a groan as the sun hits his eyes. Sasuke Uchiha, moving to the furthest corner and casting glares at the other children. Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka stumbling in hand and hand, freshly picked flowers between their fingers and decorating their hair. Chouji Akamichi crunching on some snacks, Kiba Inuzuka and his pup, Akamaru, Shino Aburame listening to the sounds of busy ants and bees who buzzed just outside the window. Children who Naruto had seen moving in and around the Leaf Village before, but never in ways that had yet to make a significant impact on his young mind.

Iruka Umino silently gulped as these children strolled in. It was Iruka’s first day as an academy teacher and he was nervous. Nervous, he thought, because a bunch of eight-year olds looked up at him expectantly. He had gone through all the necessary measures, throwing himself into teacher training over the past year as means to distract himself from the emptiness he hadn’t been able to shake for a while now. The children facing him weren’t the reason he was nervous; getting to teach them excited him more than anything. No, what made him nervous was the observations. Every new academy instructor was observed for their first few weeks of teaching. If anything went awry, the instructor was dismissed immediately. For reasons Iruka could find no answer to, the Hokage himself had decided to be the one who observed his first class. This never happened, as observations were usually done by fellow instructors, and Iruka was too nervous to question by Hiruzen Sarutobi was now sitting in the corner of his classroom, with eyes just as expectant as the children. 

Iruka took a deep breath, “I’m Instructor Umino, Welcome to the Ninja Academy.”

Some children looked distracted; others were rapt. A blonde kid in the front row gave him a toothy grin. Iruka softened his eyes at him.

“We’re going to start by getting to know each other a little bit better,” he said, “so when I call your name, stand up, and tell us a little bit about yourself. Maybe let us know why you want to be a ninja?”

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t often that the academy instructors tried to get to know the students. Usually they hopped right into lessons. He knew Iruka was bound to be an interesting teacher. Hiruzen had been interested in Iruka for a while, as he was for all orphaned children of the Leaf Village. He had checked in on him throughout his life, watching as Iruka grew into a kind and solid ninja, maintaining his sincerity, even when life threw hard hits in his way. When it was time to build the roster for incoming academy students, Hiruzen chose carefully, making sure certain students were in this class. Students that looked toward Iruka now.

Iruka called out a few names, many children standing up nervously and saying they want to be ninja because their parents were ninjas, a typical answer. Others, mostly boys, made feisty work of their introductions, and talked about how they wanted to be strong enough to beat people up. Iruka smiled and chuckled at the right times, encouraged students who were shy and gave comments about how being a ninja wasn’t just about beating people up to the overeager ones. Hiruzen smiled lightly – Iruka was good at this. Iruka, too, felt more and more at ease as each student answered. There was a warm feeling pooling in his chest, and already, he was thinking about the ninja these children would grow into and delighted by the idea of having a hand into that.

“Hinata Hyuga,” Iruka called.

Hinata looked up quickly, a bright flush spreading across her pale cheeks. She stood up and mumbled something Iruka couldn’t hear.

“Could you speak a little louder?” he asked gently.

Hinata felt her heart pounding, and she shot quick glances to her classmates, who looked back at her in states both of boredom and anticipation. Her eyes lingered for a second on Naruto Uzumaki, and the blush in her cheeks deepened as she remembered when she had seen him before, two years ago, just after her mother had died. Naruto saw her noticing him and blinked a few times, like he was trying to remember something. She looked away quickly.

“I want to be a ninja because I want to protect people and the village,” she said quickly, but loud enough to be heard. Then she added, remembering the harsh look her father had thrown her way earlier that morning, “because I want to do something to be proud of.”

Iruka was struck by the girl’s sincerity, “That’s a very good answer, thank you.”

Hinata nodded quickly and sat down. As Iruka called on a few other students, Hiruzen looked at the young Hyuga. Very rarely did ninja so young mention protection of the village as their reason for wanting to be a pursue this life. And there was the mission of pride too – he suspected there weren’t many people in Hinata’s life who were making her feel proud of herself. Hiruzen knew how the Hyuga clan worked, and it was something he had never really been a fan of but not something he felt was his place to stop. He was proud of the shake-up to the traditions that Haishi had started ten years ago – it was the very reason why Hinata existed. But since Kayda Hyuga had passed, things had been returning to what they once were.

Hiruzen glanced between Hinata and Naruto. He thought about Kayda and Kushina, about the friendship they shared, about what was meant to happen, and about what happened instead. The attack on the Leaf Village eight years ago had changed everything, and now, there were so many secrets to keep.

“Sasuke Uchiha,” Iruka said next. Sasuke stood up slowly. A few seats from him, both Ino and Sakura took in small gasps and their fingers fell apart, both suddenly more aware of Sasuke than they were of each other.

“I want to be a ninja because I want to be strong enough to catch up with my brother,” Sasuke said darkly and sat back down before Iruka could comment. Sibling rivalry was a common motivational factor in ninja families and Itachi Uchiha was one of the strongest, yet youngest, ninja in the Leaf Village. Neither Iruka nor Hiruzen could predict the dark, bloody day that was to come within just a few weeks, how Sasuke’s statements were tinged with an irony no one could even imagine yet.

Shikamaru, Ino, and and Chouji all went next, all three answering that they wanted to be ninjas because they wanted to be like their parents. The Yamanaka, Nara, and Akamichi were long known for teaming up and following in generational footsteps, so this answer wasn’t surprising. Sakura answered that she wanted to be a ninja because she didn’t want to be like her parents. The young Hanaro was one of the rare admits to academy who had non-ninja parents, but Hiruzen remembers the academy scouts telling him about Sakura’s surprising intelligence and spark, so he had let her in. He was interested in seeing where she would go.

Kiba and Shino talked their parents and partnerships between animals. Iruka had profiles of all incoming students on hand, and he knew about the special abilities about both of these boys, knew already to expect a puppy in the classroom alongside Kiba, and the occasional beetle crawling over Shino.

Finally, Iruka looked at the last name on his list, Naruto Uzumaki. He hadn’t remembered seeing the name in the profiles of students he had received weeks ago, so he assumed this student was a last-minute admit. This meant, other instructors had told him, that this student usually wouldn’t be any good, it meant they weren’t picked up by the first round of scouts and usually only admitted as a fluke or something else. And the name, Uzumaki, it felt familiar to him in a way he could not describe. It pitched a sinking feeling into his gut, a dark twisting drop that he knew too well, that only came when he thought too hard about his parents, about Kira, or about everything else that he had lost.

Whoever this kid was, he didn’t have a good feeling about him. Hiruzen noticed the second of hesitation on Iruka’s face and thought, again, about all the secrets that were starting to feel too heavy on his old shoulders.

“Naruto Uzumaki,” Iruka finally said.

Naruto’s response was instantaneous; he shot up in his seat, and slammed his hand on the table. Several of the other students jumped, “I’m Naruto Uzumaki and I’m going to be the strongest ninja in this class!”

For a moment, Iruka was startled, but then he recovered, “Well we can definitely all aim to be strong—”

“No,” Naruto cut him off, “I will be the strongest!”

As Naruto said this, he attempted to hop on top of the desk, slipping and falling over, clumsily knocking over students and chairs. The other children burst into laughter and screams as Naruto tried to recover.

And suddenly, Iruka understood why he recognized the name, understood the twisting feeling in his gut – this was Naruto Uzumaki. Around the village, he was known as a troublemaker, an orphaned boy who pulled pranks and in general, was a nuisance to the Leaf Villagers. A lot like myself, Iruka thought, a small smile settling on his face. But then Iruka remembered something else, remembered the rumors that this kid was the reason the Fourth Hokage died, that he held a demon inside of him, that same monster that had killed Iruka’s parents and so many others. A secret by decree, by law.The dark, tumbling feeling returned to Iruka’s stomach and his smile turned to a grim frown.

“Okay, let’s settle,” Iruka said to the children who were still laughing, pushing the feeling down. Yes, he thought, I don’t have a good feeling about this kid at all.

* * *

It is easy to think the story begins here, with Naruto and his future friends, in their academy days, making shy introductions or loud shouts. But the story actually begins with a tree.

Forgive me for my rambling, but in telling you this story, you need to know, it won’t always go in the order you expect. Time is a tricky thing, a constant and rounded cycle—we repeat and repeat. We’ll learn later, of those who can break free of the circle of time and manipulate it how they please. They, too, will become important pieces in the story I tell. You should know, though, that this story is bound to skip around, to toss and turn and take ventures down paths that won’t make sense until much later. So just bear with me, for as I said before. I’m remembering things as they are, and that means sometimes, these things shall be mixed. But isn’t everything better when mixed (trust me, I make ramen for a living).

We’ll spend the most time _Here_ , with Naruto and his friends. But history makes an important impact in the _Before_ , pushing and pulling and setting the scene. But don’t forget about _Between_ , the stories between the lines, that won’t feel as prominent, but are the most important of all. And a lot of story tellers tend to ignore the _Corners_ , but I won’t – I know the part that they have to play too.

Right now, we are _Here_ , but the tree is the beginning.

Both long ago and right now the tree is pulsing. The tree is pulsing because it is alive, more alive than anything should ever hope to be. An old gnarled thing, as tall as a mountain, its branches and trunk are dark and curled, gripping into the harshest depths of the earth and stretching up to scratch at the furthest reaches of the sky. It drips with rounded dark green leaves, which cast shadows across the land. The tree does not bear any fruit – not yet.

The tree feels everything. Every movement in the soil around it, every drop of perspiration in the air, every creature that dares lurk too close to it and then scurry away once they realize what the tree is. But the tree’s perception reaches further than that. The tree can hear Hinata stumbling over her words. It can sense the stifled yawn still waiting inside Shikamaru. It was can feel the weight of Sasuke’s brotherly jealously. Measure the soft touch of Ino and Sakura’s once intertwined fingers. Taste the smack of Chouji’s lips as he sneaks some more snacks, the grumbling of Kiba as he scratches behind Akamaru’s ear, the soft sounds of the Shino’s beetles as they move across his arm. The knot Iruka holds in his stomach as Hiruzen observes him. The tree feels the steam that hits my face as I stir some hot broth into a fresh bowl, the sips of my customers, the movement of feet through the village, and everything in between. The tree knows everything, it probably knows you too. Most of all, the tree can hear the peals of laughter that follow Naruto throughout the day.

The tree knows the present, the past, and the future. Life, Death, Space, Time, Fate, and Chance are strange for the tree, a pressing of undulating sheets, moving between, across, and through each other. The tree exists a millennia ago, when a soft pair of hands clutched at its newborn fruit. The tree is also chapters ahead of us, knowing what happens in those gasping moments of our hero’s final breaths. The tree is finally, now, hearing the laughter of children. The tree has only just started waiting but it has also always waited, and _Here_ , in this moment, it knows the moving sheets of bided Life, Death, Space, Time, Fate, and Chance are coming to a close, that this is where all the storied threads first start to come together.


	2. (Here) Graduation

**Before you guys dive too deeply into the story, I wanted to give a quick explanation about the way the timeline will work in this story. As Teuchi said, this story will jump around, moving from past and present and everything in between per chapter. The content will be broken down in these timelines:**

**_Here_ \- This follows Naruto and his friends, the timeline of the main story. Most of the chapters of this fic will fall into this category, and they will be the longest chapters.**

**_Before_ \- These chapters will be part story, part explanation. They follow the timeline of roughly everything that happened before the Warring States period. They're here to build the mythos of this Naruto rewrite. Some of it will be similar to the canon, but this is where a lot of of the changes will happen. These chapters will also usually be the shortest and the least featured in this fic.**

**_Between_ \- These chapters happen after the _Before_ but before the _Here_ , which is why they're _Between_ , get it? This will follow the characters and stories that happened before Naruto and the Rookie Nine were born - their teachers, their parents, the generations of ninja before them. So essentially, the time between the Warring States Period and the Nine-Tailed Fox Attack. These chapters may be long or short, but will be the second most featured in this fic. **

**_Corners_ \- Think of these chapters like side stories. They will usually follow OCs or side characters, and while they won't directly impact the main plot lines, they'll be used to flesh them out significantly.**

**At first, I thought about keeping my concept behind the timelines vague, just as Teuchi, our omnipresent 'narrator' is keeping them vague, but I thought it would be better to clarify upfront instead of having readers figure it out like a puzzle as they go along. Each chapter will be titled with the timeline it follows, so be sure to pay attention to those. This is your first _Here_ chapter. Happy reading.**

**MiHo**

* * *

The academy days went by quickly. I watched from afar as Naruto and his friends shed youth and learned to grow new selves, the will of fire pushing them into harder, tougher skins. It was the day of their graduation exam before they even realized time had passed. And our hero was finally going to make the first real bond of his young life.

* * *

Iruka Umino took a deep breath. Today was a day he had been waiting four years for – today was the day that his inaugural class would graduate from the academy. He knew, of course, that not all of his students would pass the graduation exam, that on average, only about seventy-five percent of students graduated from each class, and those who failed could either stop being ninja or continue to train for another six months, taught by remedial teachers in another section of the academy. This is what scared Iruka, that if his students failed, he would not be able to help them, that they would be sent off to some other teacher, their fates unknown.

“You look nervous,” Mizuki said, plopping down beside Iruka. Mizuki was a fellow academy teacher, someone who Iruka had gotten close to over the past few years. Mizuki had approached him during lunch on his first day, chatted him up, and assured him that he shouldn’t be fearful of Hiruzen’s observations. Iruka had vaguely remembered Mizuki from his younger years, as Mizuki was always at the parties that Kakashi and Kira would throw, but since he wasn’t really in the inner-circle, Iruka never really spoke to him too much. But since that lunch on the first day, they had been close.

“Yeah, I am,” Iruka admitted, “I just want them to do well.”

“Ah, you’re a big softie, the kids will be fine. Everyone is nervous when their first class graduates,” Mizuki said.

“Were you?”

Mizuki was a few years older than Iruka and had started teaching soon after he reached chunin status at 17. Now, he had ten years of teaching under his belt. He had already taught and graduated two classes, and this year, he was just here on standby. All instructors were present at graduation tests, but only those whose classes are graduating really feel the heat.

“Sure I was,” Mizuki answered, “but I got over it the moment my students started showing out. Don’t worry, yours will too.”

Iruka knew he was right; his students were strong and smart in equal measures. While they had given him trouble from time to time, they were a good group of kids. It had been great to watch their skills grow over the last few years, and he knew that most of them could perform all the techniques they needed to demonstrate today – answer some questions about the mechanics of genjustu, demonstrate proficiency in basic taijutsu, and successfully perform clone ninjutsu. The only potential trouble would be Naruto, who had yet to make a suitable clone during in-class practices. Iruka sure hoped that kid had practiced outside of class, especially after the talk they had last week. 

The rest of the academy teachers strolled in, chunin that Iruka had become familiar with over the last four years. He shot what he hoped were encouraging glances at the other two instructors whose classes were set to graduate today. Finally, Hiruzen strolled in and took his place at the center of the table. The Hokage always presided over the graduation exams, and his entry meant they were about to start.

Each year, three classes, made up of nine potential ninja, entered the academy, usually recruited by scouts around eight years old and sent to work under a single teacher for four years. Of course, there were exceptions, with extraordinary ninjas being allowed into the academy early and usually, those same students would graduate early too. But the last extraordinary academy student had been Itachi Uchiha, and they were all still shuddering from the Uchiha massacre three and a half years ago. There were no standouts today; all current academy students took the usual route. Still, there was an energy in the air, one that Iruka felt down to his bones, creeping through this blood, tickling the hairs on the back of his neck. He chalked it up to nerves, but it was so much more. It was an ancient energy, it pulsed and moved and whipped around the room, not disturbing anything, simply existing. It was excited for the potential that would be unlocked today, for the ninja that would take fleeting steps into the world.

* * *

Hinata Hyuga felt the energy too. Like Iruka, she chalked it up to nerves. Hinata knew she had been a good student. She knew she had tried her hardest to prove herself worthy of the Hyuga name, as her father always urged her to do so. But the energy in the room still pushed and pulled and made putty of her nervous heart as she approached the table of academy instructors.

“Hello Hinata,” Iruka said, smiling at her. She was one of his favorite students, gentle but strong. She had surprised him over the years with the type of pure grit that other students lacked.

“Hello Instructor I-I-Iruka,” Hinata stuttered out with a nod.

“As you know, today’s graduation exam will consist of three parts. We’ll ask you some questions about genjutsu, ask you to demonstrate some basic taijutsu techniques, and then ask you to perform the shadow clone jutsu. Do you think you can handle that?”

Hinata nodded. Then, something happened – as the academy instructors began questioning Hinata, asking her to perform taijutsu moves, and finally, asking her to perform a shadow clone jutsu, the energy in the room, which felt so chaotic and daunting before, suddenly became warm and steadfast, like a gentle push. Hinata felt the warmth spread through her veins, pushing her mouth into confident answers as she talked on genjutsu, egging on her punches and kicks to hit a little harder, sharpening the focus of her chakra and fingers as she made the signs for the shadow clone jutsu.

Iruka felt the shift in the energy too, felt the way it pushed away Hinata’s nerves, the way it made her more confident.

“Excellent,” Hiruzen said with a smile as Hinata’s perfectly formed clones dissipated. “Hinata Hyuga, you have passed the graduation exam and are thereby promoted to genin status. Tomorrow you will pick up your ninja headband, take your official identifying photo, and be assigned your ninja team. Congratulations Miss Hyuga.”

A hot blush ran across Hinata’s cheeks, “Thank you Hokage, and thank you Instructor Iruka!”

Iruka beamed proudly as she walked out, but as soon as she left, the energy shifted back to a nervous chaotic bounce, pushing on windows and crawling over his skin. Iruka glanced over to Mizuki and his other colleagues; none of them seemed to notice that radical energy shifts in the room. Even Hiruzen, at the head of the table, looked as if everything were business as usual.

For the rest of the exams, Iruka felt the energy continue to move back and forth between hectic and calming. In particular, he noticed that the energy seemed chaotic until one of his students walked in, transforming into a warm and welcoming thing, egging his students into a confidence he hadn’t even seen in class a few days before. Although, he noticed, the energy had felt much more present, much more alive, when Hinata had been in the room. What touched the other students had felt like a whisper of what it was before. 

His students felt the energy too. Chouji felt it sharpen his clumsy blows into a worthy demonstration, Ino felt it tickle her fingers into the right formation for shadow clone justu. Shikamaru felt it give him a jolt of energy to push through his laziness. Shino felt it focus him on the right answers to the genjutsu questions. Kiba felt it nudge his and Akamaru’s moves into a little more synchronicity. Sasuke felt it shave off some of his bitterness, so he didn’t openly roll his eyes at how simple the tasks were. Sakura felt it calm the stirring inside her consciousness. It was a force, moving, pushing, and pulling Iruka and his students through the day – a force that only they were privy too. Something that pushed nearly all of his students to pass the exam with flying colors while the other two graduating classes followed the usual rates of seventy-five percent passing and twenty-five percent recommended for remediation. So Iruka couldn’t help but smiling, secretly thanking the energy that pulsed around the room.

However, this is all changed when Naruto, the last candidate for the graduation exam, entered the room. The energy felt as if it were expanding three-fold, beyond the whispered pull of his other students, and the strong force behind Hinata. And suddenly it was like the different layers of that energy were mashed together, feeling both forceful and warm, both pushing and pulling, like a tug-of-war between fear and assurance. Despite all the successes of the day, Iruka was just as nervous as he had been at the start.

“Hello Naruto,” he said, remembering that like the energy in the room now, this kid had pushed and pulled at his nerves over the years, how looking at Naruto would always come with the sick drop in his stomach, and despite all of that, how he wanted Naruto, more than any other student, to pass this exam.

* * *

Since the beginning, Naruto had been a tough student to swallow – he was brash and impulsive, doing well enough, but often falling behind because of his own bravado. More times than he could count, Iruka had lost his temper with Naruto, calling him out in front of his classmates for not taking a lesson seriously or unnecessarily butting heads with other students. It didn’t help that even outside of class, Naruto was a troublemaker, pranking villagers and in general, causing problems where there needed to be none. It annoyed Iruka to no end, because it reminded him so much of his younger self, acting out and not taking anything seriously. He didn’t like that version of himself, was glad to grow out of it. The recklessness of his youth only reminded him how lonely he had been as a kid, how the bitter truth is that he was alone because of the beast that everyone knew lived inside of Naruto.

But then there were other times, where Iruka recognized a dark, sad look in Naruto’s eye, or something that Naruto would say, about not having a family, and the bitterness would fall away. Iruka’s heart would soften toward the boy. But then Naruto would usually cause some sort of trouble and Iruka would be annoyed again.

Just last week, Iruka was watching over Naruto as he cleaned off the Hokage’s statues, when one of those moments happened, he recognized a kindred spirit. Instead of letting it pass quickly into annoyance, he had invited Naruto out to ramen instead.

They went to Ichiraku’s Ramen shop, Iruka’s favorite place in the village. (A good choice, I’d say). 

“Why would you do that to the Hokage faces, I mean, you know who the Hokage are, don’t you?” Iruka asked Naruto as they started on their bowls. Of all of Naruto’s pranks, this one had really annoyed him, to show that much disrespect to the Kage.

“Of course I do,” Naruto answered back, his mouth full of noodles. He ate quickly and sloppily, as if no one had ever taught him table manners, and Iruka realized, they probably hadn’t.

“Everybody knows they were the greatest ninja of their time, the best, undefeated ninja champs,” Naruto continued, “and the Fourth Hokage is the one who saved the village from the Nine-Tailed Fox, he was the most amazing.”

Iruka sighed then, thinking about all that the village kept secret, all the stories about the Fourth Hokage that Naruto would never know, “Then why did you…”

“Because I’m going to be greater than any of them, me, Naruto, the next Hokage, a ninja legend, then everyone will have to stop disrespecting me and look up to me,” Naruto interrupted him.

For a moment, Iruka just stared. Sure, Naruto was a hardworking kid and proved himself to be a competent ninja, but the type of ninja who grew into Kage were more than competent, they were great from the start. Even though it was in his blood, Iruka couldn’t imagine Naruto’s face among those that Naruto himself had just defaced earlier that day. 

“By the way, I kinda want to ask another favor...” Naruto said nervously when Iruka didn’t respond right away. 

“You want another bowl?”

“No, I wanna try on your headband, come on, please,” Naruto asked, putting his hands together and casting bright eyes toward Iruka

“You mean this, no way,” Iruka said, tapping his headband, thinking that he could use this as a moment of encouragement, “you can only wear the Leaf headband when you can finally graduate from the academy and become a ninja, you’ve got to pass the test next week.”

“That is so uncool,” Naruto grumbled.

“No, it’d be uncool if you failed. So you gotta promise me that you’re going to practice everything on the exam, don’t disappoint me, okay?”

Naruto rolled his eyes, “Sure, sure.”

“I’m serious Naruto,” Iruka said.

“Okay, I gotcha. I’ll practice, but for now I’ll take that second bowl of ramen,” Naruto said with a grin.

Iruka had chuckled and ordered up a second bowl for the boy, the rest of the night passing in ease. It had been a moment of connection, where he could see past Naruto’s ruddy, troublemaker exterior and into his true will. He didn’t know if Naruto could be Hokage one day, but he did believe in him enough to hope he would pass the graduation exam.

But now, this strange energy, that had assured him and seemingly pushed all his other students on, was messing with his head. It was too confusing.

Iruka started in the same way he had addressed all his other students “As you know, today’s graduation examine will consist of three parts. We’ll ask you some questions about genjutsu, ask you to demonstrate some basic taijutsu techniques, and then ask you to perform the shadow clone jutsu…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, can we get on with the test already?” Naruto asked, sensing the energy too, how it felt like both a push and a pull at the same time, a warmth moving through his veins but a chill rattling in his bones. Shadow clone jutsu was his worst technique, but he had practiced every day this week, just like he had promised Iruka.

“Okay, well first the genjutsu questions,” Iruka said curtly, feeling just as antsy as Naruto from the constantly shifting energy to the room, “When deployed properly, how does genjustu effect the body?”

“Uhh, it, uhh, tricks you,” Naruto said slowly. He shook his head, feeling like the energy in the room was a static buzz in his ear, moving in an out in quick succession.

“Um, yes,” Iruka said, embarrassed and annoyed for a moment that Naruto had delivered such a basic answer. But Iruka was feeling the same buzzing mess that Naruto himself was feeling, “Yes, it tricks you, but to pass this portion you need to described the effects in detail.”

“Um, just give me a minute,” Naruto said, for a second, the buzzing in his ear grew louder and louder and then with what felt like a pop, it disappeared and suddenly his mind felt sharp, like he could answer anything.

Iruka felt it too, the way the energy burst out of confusion and for a moment, it was clear and breathable, and then Naruto was answering, quicker and more concise this time “It messes with your senses and tricks your mind and body into thinking something is happening when it’s not actually happening.”

Iruka smiled; the answer was certainly not as intelligent as the answers that students like Sakura or Shino had delivered, but it was passable enough.

“Good, now let’s move unto tiajutsu. We’ll ask you to demonstrate a taijutsu set from one of our weekly drills. I think set number ten should do,” Iruka said and as he did, the energy bounced into a quick back and forth pull, like a panting breath and slow soft sigh at the same time. It was the strangest feeling, like two sets of emotions filling him up at once.

Naruto felt it too, “Yeah, sure, I know that one,” but he didn’t sound sure at all.

As Naruto began to demonstrate the taijutsu moves, it was like the energy moved through his limbs. Some moves were sure and strong, while the next second, they were sloppy and weak. His limbs changed just as quickly as the energy did and Iruka grit his teeth at the sloppy performance. Naruto was panting when he was finished with the set, looking at Iruka, hoping he hadn’t noticed how sloppy the last two moves were and instead, noticed how sharp and precise the earlier moves had been.

“Okay Naruto, the final part of the exam is to demonstrate the genjutsu shadow clone technique. We’re looking for three sufficient clones,” Iruka explained, resisting the urge to swat at the air, which felt like it was teeming with a back and forth energy of insecurity. He needed to keep it together.

“Uh yeah,” Naruto said, quickly making the hand signals for shadow clone jutsu. His moves were precise, but he could sense the sloppy guidance of his chakra, the way that it didn’t quite pulse the way it should. He knew it wouldn’t be a good clone.

And it wasn’t. Naruto had only managed to make one clone, a pale, slumping imitation of himself that didn’t even stand up. His face burned in shame. He had done well enough when he had practiced yesterday but there was something about today, about the way his nerves felt like they were standing on end from the moment he entered the room.

Iruka let out a deep sigh, annoyed by how little it seemed Naruto had practiced, annoyed by the way a chaotic energy danced through his veins one second and softly eased into his stomach the next. Iruka didn’t know that Naruto could sense the confusing the energy too, that his performance had been so weak because he had felt like there were different sets of strings pulling him everywhere at once. He didn’t presume that this sloppy performance wasn’t exactly Naruto’s fault.

Iruka spoke his next words with a very heavy heart, “I’m sorry Naruto, but you had mediocre performances in all three areas, you’ve failed.”

Iruka looked away before he could see the look of disappointment on Naruto’s face, but then, beside him, Mizuki cleared his throat, “Iruka, he’s off, but his moves weren’t bad and he did hang in there and replicate, we could cut him a break, don’t you think so Hokage?”

Iruka was surprised that Mizuki, of all people, was going easy on Naruto. He respected Mizuki as a friend and colleague but knew that he was known for being kind of a hard ass on his students. He was even more surprised that Mizuki would call on Hiruzen.

“Mizuki, as you well know, myself and the other instructors are here merely to witness. Only the instructors whose pupils are graduating get to make the call on whether they pass the graduation exam or not. Of course, we could officially contest Iruka’s judgement, but I’d like to hear Iruka’s reasoning for choosing to fail Naruto before that happens,” Hiruzen explained, his voice calm.

Iruka chose his next words carefully, this time looking directly at Naruto, hoping that the boy saw that he was only being this harsh because he wanted him to work harder, “Naruto’s explanation of genjutsu was basic at best, his demonstration of taijutsu was uneven, and his ninjutsu, which is the most important part of this exam, was his weakest component. The other students created at least three effective replications, but Naruto could only create one, and look at it, it’s pitiful, I can’t pass him.”

Iruka saw the hurt in Naruto’s eyes as he said this, but he knew that, like all the other times he has scolded Naruto, the boy needed to hear this.

“And do you officially contest Iruka’s judgement?” Hiruzen asked Mizuki.

Mizuki shrugged his shoulders, “He’s Iruka’s student, I’m sure he knows best.”

“Then I’m sorry Naruto, but you did not pass the graduation exam,” Hiruzen said, speaking more officially now and directing his voice at Naruto, “You may choose to cease your studies or go through six months of remediation.”

“This is so stupid!” Naruto yelled, his face suddenly angry. He ran out the door, slamming it behind him. Iruka felt the sting of it in his chest. But he noticed too that as soon as Naruto left the room that the strange energy, which had been both friendly and cruel that day, suddenly drifted off, as if a wind had grabbed hold of it and slung it away, as if it had all been part of Iruka’s imagination.

“Well, not all students can be happy with the results,” Hiruzen said, speaking in the same official voice he had earlier. “To all the instructors, thank you for being here today. And for those of you whose students graduate today, congratulations on the new ninja who you helped train up. I saw a lot of impressive things here today, and I’m sure they’ll only get better. You are all dismissed.”

All the instructors began gathering their things, Iruka among them. But as he made his way toward the door, the Hokage put on a hand on his shoulder, “Iruka, let’s have a chat.”

Apparently, the exams were not over.

* * *

Outside of the academy, Naruto sat and watched his classmates and students from the other classes smile and take pictures with their families. He had found out, through overhearing them, that he was the only student in Iruka’s class that hadn’t passed. While a couple students in other classes hadn’t passed either, to be the only student in his class to not pass made him feel like an idiot.

He had tried really hard. He didn’t get it. Yesterday, when he had practiced, everything had gone good enough. Even his shadow clone jutsu seemed better than normal. He wasn’t that good at sensing things, but there was something off about the exam, something about the way the air felt, the way it made him feel like he couldn’t do anything.

Two women stood a little apart from the crowd, whispering and glaring at Naruto. Naruto didn’t have to hear them to know what they were saying, probably talking about how much of a failure he was. He glared right back at them, stuck out his tongue for good measure. They flushed and turned back to the crowd.

“Hey, you’re Naruto right,” a white-haired man said, walking up to him.

“Yeah,” Naruto said, perking up, “you’re that guy who tried to stand up for me to Instructor Iruka.”

“The name is Mizuki. Want to go for a walk?”

Naruto let out a smile. It wasn’t often that people gave him the time of day and he was happy to go with anyone who had wanted him to pass the exam. He followed Mizuki away from the crowd.

“Iruka is tough, but he’s not against you,” Mizuki said after a few minutes of silence.

Naruto bitterly rolled his eyes at that “Then why, why only me? Why am I the only student from his class that he failed.”

“He wants you to be strong with all his heart, but that will never happen if he goes easy on you. He’s like you, you know, no parents, no family,” Mizuki said softly.

Naruto was surprised then, surprised that Mizuki knew enough about him to know he didn’t have parents. Surprised that Iruka apparently had no parents or family either.

“Yeah, well that doesn’t mean he has to treat me like everyone else,” Naruto grumbled, deciding he didn’t care if Iruka didn’t have parents. He had never acknowledged Naruto’s lack of family, so why should Iruka’s family situation matter.

“The people in this village really don’t respect you, do they Naruto? They really don’t see you?” Mizuki asked, his voice kind. Naruto felt struck, surprised that this random instructor who hardly knew him seemed to understand him so well.

“No, they don’t” Naruto said, trying not to let sadness come through his voice.

“Then I guess I have to tell you,” Mizuki said, a hopeful tinge in his voice, “it’s a secret, but I’m gonna let you in on it. All the villagers will respect you after this.”

Naruto smiled, intrigued by what would come next.

* * *

Iruka was lying in his bed, thinking about what had happened that day, his emotions a mixed bag. He couldn’t stop thinking about the strange energy in the room, about the way it had moved back and forth between seemingly egging his students into doing better or pulling them away from success, and the way it had suddenly disappeared. Had he just imagined it?

He didn’t know, and his emotions were too all over the place to sort through them right now. On one hand, he was proud of his students that had done so well, the success rate within his class was not something that was usual of an instructor’s first graduating class. It was a good feeling. On the other hand, he couldn’t get over what had happened with Naruto, couldn’t stop thinking about what Hiruzen had told him.

After he had asked Iruka stay behind, Hiruzen had talked about Naruto.

“Iruka, I know how you feel, you grew up just like Naruto, without knowing the love of a mother and father, the warmth of a family. He’s shut out of everything and doesn’t know why. Most people won’t even look at him. How would you feel if everywhere you went, people turned their backs on you? That’s why he gets in trouble. So people would notice him. It may not show, but he’s always thinking about the family he doesn’t have. He’s hurting inside.”

“I know that,” Iruka had responded, “I see that sometimes, but I just…”

“— It’s hard because you can’t dissociate him with the beast that killed your parents,” Hiruzen finished for him.

Iruka nodded, “And because he’s so belligerent sometimes. I know he plays pranks for attention, but to be totally unprepared for a graduation exam.”

“Reminds you of you, huh?” Hiruzen asked.

Iruka flushed, having forgot that it took him two tries to graduate from the academy too. That had been such a long time ago, he had been more interested in his latest prank than studying for an exam.

“Yeah, he’s like me,” Iruka said, resigned. “Do you think I made the wrong choice in not passing him?”

“No, I think Naruto could benefit from a little more training. But I want you to know that just because he’ll be doing remedial training, it doesn’t mean you have to stop being his teacher, that you have to stop being there for him. You know the difference it made for you between your two attempts,” Hiruzen said with a smile.

He had dismissed Iruka after that. Now, back home, Iruka was thinking back to when he first failed his graduation exam, to the days in his youth when he wanted to do nothing but make trouble. His parents were dead, and he was angry, angry at the world who had took them away and the Village who had cleaned everything up, put out a decree, and pretended like it had never happened. Angry that no one in the village even looked at him anymore.

Except the Hokage.

After his first failed attempt, Hiruzen had reached out to Iruka, had given him the job in the village archives, had spent afternoons just talking to Iruka about his life and interests and everything else. It had felt so good just for someone to hear him, had felt even more special that is was the Hokage. And through his job at the village archives he had met Kakashi, who had introduced him to Gai, and Kurenai, and Asuma, and Anko. How for the first time in his life he had friends, he had not been alone. And how making those friends had led him to meeting Kira. Everything changed after she left, but that was another story (and yes, dear reader, a story you will eventually learn). Sarutobi had changed his life, just by giving him the time of day. Maybe he could do the same for Naruto.

Suddenly, there was a banging on his apartment door. It was Mizuki, “Iruka, you have to come quickly, it’s Naruto, he stole the sacred scroll!”

* * *

Iruka was having a little trouble believing that Naruto, of all people, had managed to steal the sacred scroll. There had to be an explanation why he had taken it, the kid didn’t have the kind of malice needed to put that scroll in the hands of those who would use it to ruin the Leaf Village.

He and some other chunin had been searching for Naruto for the past hour, under orders of Hiruzen, and finally, Iruka had spotted him in the clearing ahead, the sacred scroll partially rolled out in front of him.

“Naruto, what are you doing?” he asked, landing in front of him.

“Caught me already, not bad. You’re quick, I only had time to learn one technique,” Naruto said with a chuckle, “Listen Instructor Iruka, I’m going to show this amazing jutsu and then you’re going to let me graduate and then everything will be okay, that’s the way it works right, anyone who learns a jutsu from this scroll passes.”

Iruka had no idea what Naruto was talking about, “Where’d you get that idea?”

“Mizuki told me about it, he told me where to find the scroll and this place,” Naruto explained, gesturing to the clearing around them.

Before Iruka had time to think about what Naruto said, to think about the fact that Mizuki, of all people, had given Naruto access to such dangerous information, he sensed someone jumping through the trees behind him, the zing of shuriken zipping through the air.

“Look out!” Iruka shouted, shoving Naruto aside. A handful of throwing knives and shuriken jumped out of the dark, piercing Iruka’s skin and the walls of the shed behind him. He held back a grunt as blood began to pour from the wounds

“I see you’ve found our little hideaway,” he heard a familiar voice say and then Mizuki was there, standing on some branches in the trees just a few feet away. It was almost too much for Iruka to take in at once, but it suddenly made sense. Mizuki had wanted the sacred scroll for himself, Naruto was just a diversion.

“I can’t believe it’s you,” Iruka said.

Mizuki ignored him, “Naruto, give me the scroll.”

Iruka glanced over at Naruto, who was breathing heavily and gripping the scroll with both arms. He was relieved to see that Naruto hadn’t been hit by a single shuriken or knife but annoyed by the confused look on Naruto’s face. Couldn’t Naruto see what was happening?

“Naruto, don’t let Mizuki get the scroll. It contains forbidden jutsu that could put this village in great danger. Mizuki used you to get the scroll for his own power,” Iruka yelled, pulling at the few of the shuriken that were holding him back. It still wasn’t enough to get free.

“Naruto,” Mizuki said from the trees, a sick sneer in his voice, “Iruka is just trying to scare you because he doesn’t want you to have the scroll.”

“Stop lying Mizuki, don’t let him trick you Naruto,” Iruka said as Naruto buried his head in his hands, mumbling about his confusion.

“Oh, I’ll tell you who is really lying, they’ve been lying to you their whole lives, since the decree twelve years ago” Mizuki said, his voice sounding like a purr.

“What decree?” Naruto asked, his head suddenly perking up.

“No, Mizuki!” Iruka said, trying fiercely to pull himself from the shuriken and knives holding him back. He couldn’t believe Mizuki would stoop that low, to break the decree the village had held for twelve years now, but then again, he shouldn’t be surprised by anything Mizuki did.

“Everyone knows except you. Iruka is trying to hide it from your even now, he’d do anything to shut me up…”

“Stop!”

“The decree is that no one can tell you the Nine-Tailed Fox is inside you. The fox spirit that killed Iruka’s parents and destroyed our village has taken over your body, you are the Nine-Tailed Fox. They’ve all been sneaking around, hiding things from you your whole life. Didn’t you think it was strange how they treated you, like dirt, like they hated you for just being alive,” Mizuki said, chuckling as he did.

Naruto looked like he had fallen in on himself, “No, no.”

“That’s why you will never be accepted in this village. Even your beloved Instructor hates your guts!”

“Naruto! Get Down!” Iruka shouted seeing Mizuki lift the larger shuriken off his head. He threw it, but Iruka was faster, pulling himself away from the knives that held him down by sheer force, feeling the rips in his skin, and throwing himself in front of the larger shuriken. The bite into his back sent a jolt through his spine, a harsh and immediate pulsing pain, but he stopped the shuriken, he had saved Naruto.

Beneath him, Naruto’s face was in shock, and for a moment, Iruka realized that Naruto believed Mizuki, believed that Iruka hated him, “Why?”

In that moment, Iruka realized that he probably cared about Naruto more than any other student, realized that all the back and forth they had gone through throughout the years had meant something. Naruto wasn’t just his student, he was family.

“Because we’re the same,” Iruka said, speaking through the pain, hot tears burning down his face, “when I lost my parents, no one seemed to care. They didn’t have time for me. They just forgot I was there. My grades dropped. I became the class clown. I just wanted them to see me...and know my name. My school wasn’t good enough to get the attention, so I did crazy things and then I had to pay for it. It was hard. I know that’s how you feel, Naruto. You feel lonely and it hurts inside. And I could’ve been there for you more. I let you down. I’m sorry. No one should have to suffer that much. No one should be alone like that.”

Behind him, Mizuki laughed, “Don’t make me laugh! Iruka always hated you. He was orphaned because the Nine-Tailed Fox killed his parents. And that beast is now inside you. He’d say anything to get the scroll from you.”

Naruto, his face hurt, scooted out from under Iruka, pulled the scroll on his back and ran deeper into the woods.

“Naruto,” Iruka shouted as a fresh wave of pain rolls over him. Behind him, he heard the sound of Mizuki jumping out of the tree.

“You know once he makes up his mind, nothing can change it. He’s going to use the scroll to take revenge on the village. You saw that look in his eye, didn’t you? Those are the eyes of a beast.”

Iruka calculated his next move quickly, ripping the Shuriken from his back, standing it up, and throwing it at Mizuki in less than a second. Mizuki dodged it, jumped back into the trees.

“You’re a joke,” Mizuki said as Iruka tried to gain his footing, jumping further into the trees, “I’ll come back to finish you after I’m done with Naruto.”

“I won’t let you,” Iruka shouted, pushing through the pain and chasing after him, finding Mizuki mid-dive toward Naruto, who was panting on the ground below them. Iruka dived toward Muzuki, tackling him to the ground, feeling the weight of his injuries in his bones. He tried to take a hit at Mizuki who grabbed his arms and twisted it back, Iruka hearing the crack of the arm breaking before he felt the pain of it. He resisted the urge to scream.

“Why are you protecting that freak?” Mizuki shouted, pulling harder at Iruka’s now broken arm, “He’s the one who wiped out your family!”

Then out of nowhere, Naruto was there, head butting Mizuki so hard in the gut that he fell backward. Iruka couldn’t help but smile despite all the pain. And the knowledge that this still isn’t over.

When Naruto spoke, his voice is clear, “If you ever lay a hand on my Instructor again, I’ll kill you!

Mizuki recovered himself, standing up, “Such big words. I can completely destroy you with a single move!”

And then, faster than either Iruka or Mizuki could really see, Naruto made the hand signals for the shadow clone jutsu and suddenly there was a dark cloud of shadows covering them. Iruka looked around in shock; they were not just shadows, they were clones – hundreds and hundreds of fully formed clones. The jutsu was incredible, Iruka had never even seen the most advanced ninja make this many clones at once. He could barely believe he was seeing it. And then in a rush, all the clones were on top of Mizuki, screaming and hitting and kicking and pounding him all at once. And then as quickly as they appeared, they all disappeared in a puff of smoke, with Naruto, by himself, standing above a knocked out and badly beaten Mizuki.

“Sorry, I kinda got carried away,” Naruto said with a sheepish grin, reaching a hand toward Iruka, “You okay Instructor Iruka?”

With his good arm, Iruka reached out and took Naruto’s hand. Maybe those dreams of being Hokage weren’t so far fetched after all.

* * *

The next day, Iruka looked out the window of his hospital room. The healers had fixed up most of his problems, setting his broken arm and healing his smaller wounds, but that larger shuriken had pierced some cartilage in his spine, he would need a few more days to recover.

“Instructor Iruka!” Naruto yelled, bounding into the room. He threw himself on top of Iruka’s bed, hugging him.

Iruka laughed and hugged him back, despite the pain.

Naruto pulled back, “The nurses said you wanted to give me something?”

“Yeah,” Iruka said, reaching beside his bed and pulling out the headband he had asked to be set aside just for Naruto. He bent toward Naruto, pushing the kid’s goggles off the top of his head and securing the head band around his head. He pulled back, “Congratulation Naruto Uzumaki, you are officially a graduate of the Ninja Academy and a genin of the Leaf Village.”

Naruto’s entire face lit up, a bright smile pushed into his cheekbones and bright blue eyes, which welled up with tears. He didn’t say a word, just threw another hug around Iruka. Iruka hugged him back, let himself sink into it, let himself feel the family he never had and imagined a future, one full of jokes and bowls of ramen galore, one where he would get to guide Naruto through being a ninja for the rest of his life.

And just like that, our young hero had made his first friend, no, his family. All around the village, the new ninja were shining their headbands, posing in front of their mirrors, feeling the early weight of being a ninja of the Hidden Leaf. Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto – The Rookie Nine, as history would later call them – felt that weight a little harder than the other newly graduated ninja. They had felt the energy in the room that day, the way it had moved around and through them, and it was a feeling they couldn’t shake, that someone or something had been responsible for them becoming ninja, and that whatever it was, it wasn’t done with them yet.

* * *

Far away and close by, miles below and right beside them, because it is distant and near all at once, the tree let out a soft sigh, it’s trunk cracking in anticipation. The Rookie Nine could not see the tree, but it certainly saw them, and it knew what was meant to come. But Fate, that tricky bitch, had tried to stop the tree, tangled up her red threads in its reach and mucked up the final one, the most important one. All the others had been fine, Fate and the Tree working together, but she had changed her mind, had seen something in Naruto Uzumaki that she wanted to keep at bay. Not forever, the tree sensed, but just for now. Their fight had almost cost the boy his graduation, but in the end, the tree had got its way – not even Fate could interrupt all that was to come.


	3. (Before) The Hungry Woman

Long before Naruto and Iruka became friends, before the Rookie Nine put on their headbands, before the Nine-Tailed Beast attacked, before even the Villages were made, there were the Lands, the soil that every part of our story touches – it came _Before_ , but it also lives in the _Here,_ _Between_ , and _Corners_.

The Land of Earth is dappled with mountains and great spreads of harsh rock, with furious winds that rain that rock on neighboring countries. The Land of Fire is bright and warm, a corner of soft sunshine and green leaves. The Land of Iron rests between The Three Wolves, a trio of overprotective mountains. The Land of Lightening is made of cliffs, rivers, and oceans, which brew up heady thunderstorms and push them into other lands. The Land of Snow, appropriately named, is frosty and cold. The Land of Rice Fields is a small, silent country, but in the future, it will be full of Sound. The Land of Waters imagines itself with two names, islands covered in snow and Mist. The Land of Wind in made of open spaces and hot flats of sand, a desert spreading between the other countries. And Land of Sky, named for the those who would fill its airy expanses with chakra. And of course, there are the smaller lands, which we should not overlook – Benisu Island, Ancestors, Bean Jam, Bears, Birds, Claws, Demons, Fangs, Flowers, Forests, Honey, Hot Water, Keys, Medicines, Mountain Streams, Mountains, Neck, Noodles, Redaku, Rivers, Sand, Silence, Stone, Swamps, Tea, That, This, Valleys, Vegetables, Whirlpools, Woods, Moon, Sea, and Rōran.

This list may seem long and aching and irrelevant, but these are the lands that pull and shape and wave the threads of our stories. They are the makers of Fate and Chance, the push and pull of Space and Time, the harbingers of Life and Death. Millenia ago, these lands were all knitted together closely, the bounds of reality stitched through all of them. But humans are fickle and angry and cruel. They do not appreciate the tapestry of the Lands, they do not appreciate the way the very physicality of it grounds them, the way it keeps them together.

These Lands were once nameless, but soon identity and solace and characteristics sprang up, ushered on by humans who made claims to places that were theirs. They fought and earned those names, but as they did, they spilled blood, wetting the fabric of reality. Fate, Chance, Space, Time, Life, and Death lost their grip, their reach slick with the blood that the early people shed, and in that single second of disarray, before the strands came back together, a crack opened up between the lands.

The crack does not appear physical, just as the woven threads of reality do not appear physical to us. It just is. A crack, deep and dark, invisibly scarring every land on this planet. The humans didn’t sense the crack, didn’t feel the shifting of earth under their feet, and the way that new echoes of Fate, Chance, Space, Time, Life, and Death rippled through them. These forces, they strengthened their grip, tightened the bounds by which they held the universe together, casting wary looks at the accidental crack, promising, they would take responsibility for whatever grew out of it.

* * *

Kaguya was very hungry. A hunger different than all the hungers she had ever felt before. And she was exhausted, tired of the endless fighting that raged around her. It had killed her family, her father stabbed in his bloated gut and her mother dying of disease stirred up by dust and germs that wouldn’t settle.

They had been nomads before, but Kaguya was too young to remember, only brief glimpses of the shuffle of feet, of setting up tents between mountain passes, of all types of weather – rain, snow, sun, and heat dancing over her skin. Everyone had been nomads once, her father told her before he died. People didn’t settle in the lands, they moved through them, experiencing life as a constant motion. The land and its resources belonged to all of them, ready to serve whatever passing stranger stepped foot on their soil. But something happened, people got tired of moving, and a still life suddenly made more sense. And when they settled, they started fighting, everyone ready to claim the land they wanted, eager to fill themselves up with its resources and share nothing.

Leaders sprang up among the once nomadic people, those who were the first to settle. They called themselves daimyos, pushed forces of armed men into battle with each other, fighting over a certain mountain pass or a flowing river.

“We’re fighting for our namesake,” her father had told her, the night before he entered the wars, days before his body was delivered back, a hole sliced clean through his stomach. “We’ll be the Land of Fire, once this is all through, and all of this, it will be ours.”

Kaguya had rolled her eyes then, “Why does a name matter, there’s so many names, so many stupid things. Fire, Water, Sky, Noodles, Neck, Medicine? It’s all so tiring, so much fighting for names that mean nothing.”

“They don’t mean nothing, my girl,” her father had said, “a name means something, a name means you have a place. You hardly remember the life we had before, the way we moved, the constant displacement. We’re fighting for a name, yes, but we’re also fighting for the way that name grounds us.”

Kaguya rolled her eyes some more, not caring about the names or land or anything in between, caring only that they were starving, that her mother was sick, that her father was leaving. To her, land meant nothing, just a place to put your feet.

That had been years ago, so many years that Kaguya stopped counting. Just a few weeks after she buried her father, her mother had finally succumbed to her sickness, her skin sallow and her eyes glazed over. Kaguya was more relieved than sad, glad that she now only had to take of herself as soon as she was done patting the dirt over her mother’s grave. And then, time had passed, Kaguya grew from a young girl into a woman. She stayed in the same place, growing feeble meals from the land, begging from others when nothing bloomed. She learned, as she got older, than men could be easily tricked into providing a hearty meal for her, if only she did what they asked in return, slipping into their beds at night. Through her own meager farming, and the open beds of the other settlers, Kaguya had survived, the type of survival that made you feel like you were constantly on fire, like every second was suffering, but you somehow still kept going.

She had heard, from the gossip and celebration of others around her, that this land had finally earned its named, the Land of Fire, reborn as its own country. But Kaguya felt nothing in this rebirth, only the burning of her constant struggle to survive. The Land of Fire, she had thought to herself when she heard the news, it was appropriate.

And then one night, everything changed. She awoke in a cold sweat, her head swirling, an ache in her gut unlike any she had ever felt before. Kaguya had been hungry before , but she had never been hungry like this, like claws reaching from inside her stomach, tearing at her flesh, ripping her from naval to nose. She got up, ate the meager scraps she had on hand, but it still wasn’t enough. She went outside, bare feet on the land that she loathed so much. The hunger in her belly raged on, pushing her feet forward. She was done with this place, done being a person who settled. She would be a nomad, she would move through the lands until this strange, heartbreaking ache in her gut finally ended.

Kaguya was not special in anyway. Too many legends would have you believe she was something monstrous or alien, something not privy to our reality. But the truth is, Kaguya was just a hungry woman. Maybe there was something larger at play, maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that the night she had felt an endless hunger in her stomach was the same night that the crack between lands first appeared. Maybe the call in her gut, the scratching ache that pushed her feet forward was the ache of something growing within the crack, somehow calling out to her. Maybe, but we don’t know. I will not exaggerate, as some others would like to do. Kaguya was just a hungry woman, who started walking and somehow, fell into the crack between all the lands.

* * *

She wasn’t sure how long she had been walking. Her feet were covered in blisters, different ones from all the terrain they had touched – grass, rock, snow, and now, sand. Her skin was raw, burnt by the sun, hit with sharp winds, and pelted by hissing rain. Her knees were aching, wound tightly from the strain of walking so long. Along the way, she slept when she needed to, finding shelter wherever she could, by convincing the local innkeeper of a town she was passing through to give her a room for the night, in caves that she made sure were empty of animals first, in the empty barracks, left behind after rounds and rounds of endless fighting. She also ate when she needed to, catching animals and crisping them up in fires that she built. But nothing ever settled her stomach, and until she could find the key to this hunger, Kaguya would keep walking.

Until one day she wasn’t walking. She couldn’t tell how it happened. One moment she was walking across the desert, squinting at the harsh sun, and next she was there, her feet suddenly calm, planting her in front of a tree. Or, at least she thought it was a tree. It looked like a mountain, tall and horrible, but surely, that was bark that she was seeing, roots stretching down under her feet, branches reaching beyond where her eyes could see, dark leaves as big as houses casting her in shadows. The tree was suddenly there, without reason or explanation. And hanging from its lowest branches, one she could reach if she just climbed a little, was a fruit, bright and red and almost glowing.

And suddenly, the ache in her gut was ravaging. If she thought she had felt pain before, she must have only imagined it. This scratching, this emptiness, it was worse than death, like a black endless abyss that would consume her if she didn’t quench it soon. She had to have the fruit, she needed it.

But Death had nothing to do with what Kaguya was feeling. Instead, Death and all the other forces, Life, Time, Space, Fate, and Chance, were panicked. They hadn’t been able to see before, what had been growing out of the crack, hadn’t seen the tree moving, hadn’t seen it filling all the space of the crack between lands. But now, they saw. And they saw too, the pitiful, hapless human woman reaching out for the fruit. In a flurry, they reached out to try to stop her, but found themselves caught in the branches of the tree, tangled up in a power they had never felt before.

Kaguya, unaware, plucked the fruit from its branch. It was heavier than she imagined, thick and ripe, but she couldn’t help but to bite down into it immediately. The moment that Kaguya bit into the fruit, the wretched scratching in her stomach eased. But it went beyond that, beyond healing her aching stomach. The moment she took a bite, the sticky sweet syrup of the fruit coating her throat, she felt alive, she felt whole, she felt, suddenly, like she could feel her own soul.

Untangling themselves from the branches, the forces felt it too. Felt the way that a new pattern wove itself into the fabric of reality, a golden, shining strand that they knew would change the tapestry of humanity forever. Fate, Chance, and Time saw the way it would alter the future, patterns that suddenly made no sense. Space, Life, and Death saw the way it would push the bounds of what was possible, change what humans could do. This was it. This was the birth of chakra.

And the tree, the petulant child they had accidentally gave birth to, shook with laughter as Kaguya devoured its fruit. 


	4. (Here) Teams and Tests

Every hidden village has different ways of organizing their ninja teams. In the Leaf Village, ninjas begin in teams of three, paired together based on skill and history. They are led by a Jounin, who guides them through missions from the early days onward.

To some ninja, this teams don’t mean a lot. To some ninja, these teams are just people they work with, people who they see a few times a week. To other ninjas, these teams are everything, the friendship and families they never had, the happy moments and hard fights that make up life, the most important connections they will ever make.

Can you guess what being on a team meant to our heroes?

* * *

Kurenai Yuhi was excited to meet her team. The first team she would lead. She knew, of course, they had one more test to pass before they could be genin, before they could be a team, before they could be hers, but she was still excited.

Asuma had made fun of her earlier that morning, the way she bounced around in the morning, “You’re really…chipper this morning.”

“Ugh, don’t use the word to describe me,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Chipper makes me sound like I’m a little girl excited for her birthday party. This is more serious; I finally get the Jounin perk of teaching young ninja.”

“Yes, you’re so soooo serious,” he said with a laugh, pulling her back into bed.

Now, she was in Iruka’s class, meeting her new students. She had read their profiles the night before but meeting them. First, the girl, Hinata Hyuga. She introduced herself to Kurenai shyly. And then the boy and his pup, Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru, who, both who moved with anticipation during their introductions. Finally, there was Shino Aburame, who gave monosyllabic replies to all her initial questions. It was certainly a dynamic group, but one the Kurenai was excited to get know, teach, and trust. But first, their test.

After introductions, Kurenai had led them far, far south in the village, to a training ground that many rarely used. And in that training ground was a vast and complicated maze, made of unending, extremely tall green hedges.

“Woah, I never knew this was here,” Kiba said as they approached. Akamaru barked in agreement.

“Very few people do,” Kurenai said, “it’s only used by a small sect of ninja”

“What sect of ninja?” Hinata asked, curious.

“Tracking ninja,” Kurenai said with a smile, turning to them. She took a breath. Asuma had told her to have fun with the next part, to really play up the competition, to really make them work hard to figure out how to work together.

“You three were put together as a team because you were identified as having unique tracking skills, and should you train hard enough, could grow into excellent tracking ninja,” Kurenai explained. “We’re going to put those tracking skills to test today. In this maze, there are two ichi teacups. Each of you has until sundown to find one of the teacups and return it to me. Be warned, this maze is confusing and full of traps, finding the teacups won’t be an easy task.”

“Heh, me and Akamaru can sniff out anything,” Kiba said with a grin, pushing his sleeves up.

“Excuse me, Instructor Kurenai,” Hinata said softly, “You said each of needs to find a teacup, but there are two teacups and three of us.”

“Ah, you noticed that didn’t you,” Kurenai replied. “That is true, there are only two teacups. Only two of you will complete this task, and those two will continue to be genin. The third person, the one who can’t find the teacup, well…they’ll lose their genin status and have to return to the academy for remedial training.”

“What?” Kiba yelled, “that’s total bullshit!”

“It’s not if you’re actually skilled enough to do it,” Shino said with an edge in his voice.

“And what you trying to imply with that, huh?” Kiba growled in Shino’s direction.

“Just that any competent tracking ninja should have no problem achieving this task.”

“Why, I oughta—" Kiba began, but Kurenai cut them off.

“Settle down, save the fighting for the maze.”

She was surprised to see how suddenly the competition had stirred between the two boys, could feel the tension rolling off them now. Maybe this group wouldn’t be able to work together in the end.

“So um,” Hinata said, speaking almost too softly to be heard, “You mean you want us to fight each other for the teacups?”

“I want all of you to do whatever is necessary to complete the task. The only rule is that you cannot jump over the hedges, you must navigate the maze from the ground. I’ll be in that watchtower,” Kurenai said, gesturing to the structure to the right, “watching your progress. If you follow the path, you’ll find marked entrances to the maze. Hinata can take entry A, Kiba may take entry B, and Shino may take entry C. As I said, you have until sundown to complete this task, which is roughly four hours from now.”

“I have one more question?” Hinata asked.

“And what is that?”

“What if none of us can find a teacup?”

“Then you all fail, and return to the academy,” Kurenai said.

A dark cloud seemed to settle over all of them then, all three realizing it was possible that their graduation exam had meant nothing. Kurenai didn’t like this part, but knew it was necessary. To be a team, they’d have to overcome the proposed competition and work together. Each Jounin could come up with their own test, but the objective was the same. And if the young ninja did not work together, they proved they weren’t ready to be genin. Kurenai couldn’t understand why Asuma and Kakashi actually had fun with this part.

“I’ll be in the watchtower, you have four hours,” Kurenai said sharply, trying to find her nerve, and jumped up to it.

From above, she watched each ninja take their place at the entries she assigned them, and then in a second, they were off. She leaned back, ready to see the show.

Beneath, in the maze, Hinata’s heart was pounding. She couldn’t believe that this was happening, that is was possible that she would be sent back to the academy, couldn’t imagine the look on her father’s face if that happened. And she didn’t want to fight Shino or Kiba, if they were supposed to her teammates, that logic didn’t make sense to her. But the weight on her shoulders, the weight of making sure she made the Hyuga clan proud, far outweighed that.

Hinata took a break, focused her chakra, and looked up, her Byakugan activated and looked out over the expanse of the maze. It was more massive than she had originally imagined it to be, stretching beyond the length of her enhanced vision. Finding a teacup would be harder than she taught.

On another side of the maze, Kiba pumped himself up, running alongside Akamaru as they tried to catch a scent of tea. He couldn’t go back to the academy, and Shino, that jerk, had acted like Kiba didn’t have the skills to do this. He hadn’t liked how quiet and shady that dude had been at the academy, and he didn’t like it now.

“You know what Akamaru, let’s change paths,” he said, stopping. “Let’s find that creepy bug guy instead, we know his scent.”

Knock out Shino first, he thought, and then look for the teacup.

Meanwhile, Shino, was standing perfectly still. He released a small swarm of beetles above the maze. He couldn’t move over the hedges, but certainly, his beetles could, and they could give him a vantage point to start from. His teammates had run quickly into the maze, but Shino had strolled in slowly. He knew that patience, above everything else, would be the key to solving this puzzle.

Suddenly, there was a yip behind him, and Shino turned around and saw Kiba and Akamaru blazing his way. He dodged out of their way, both of them skidding beyond him and turning around.

“Ha, bet you didn’t expect us!” Kiba yelled as he charged ahead, meanwhile, Akamaru ran around to Shino’s other side. Shino was quick to respond, releasing a cloud of beetles and taking a solid stance in the same instance. The beetles would deal with Akamaru, clouding his vision and stopping him from an attack, Shino would deal with Kiba himself.

“Well you never know what to expect from an idiot,” Shino said bluntly as he dodged a punch from Kiba. As he bent down, he attempted a kick at Kiba’s feet, who jumped in response.

“I’m not an idiot you asswipe!” Kiba yelled, landing a kick on Shino’s stomach. It was hard enough to knock Shino off his feet, but not hard enough to push him away. He jumped up immediately and planted a punch that made Kiba stumble.

“Must our fighting be so low?” Shino said as Kiba recovered. He considered himself a tactical fighter, pure taijustu was beneath him. Behind him, they both heard a yelp as his beetles converged around Akamaru. Shino smirked.

“Akamaru!” Kiba shouted, leaving him and running to his pup. It looked like there was a moving cloud of black around him and Kiba realized it was Shino’s creepy bugs. Kiba picked up Akamaru, wiping the bugs off him, but they swarmed back, crawling on his skin. He smacked at his arm, squashing a few of them.

Shino was suddenly on him, pulling Akamaru out of his hands and throwing him into one of the hedges, “How dare you disrespect my chakra beetles?”

Kiba jumped up, “Like the disrespect you showed Akamaru!”

Just around the corner, Hinata saw the waves of their chakra moving toward each other, watched as they came after each other again. She rounded the corner, coming onto them and with a spin, hit them across the shoulder with two fingers in quick succession.

They dropped to the ground; their chakra pathways blocked. Hinata sucked in a breath, seeing the damage she had done. She hadn’t meant to use that much force.

Kiba and Shino had felt the hits the moment they happened. Her fingers gentle but waves of pain pushing through them. They both felt heavy, suddenly felt like their chakra had left them.

“I’m sorry,” Hinata said, bowing quickly, “I just wanted you to stop fighting.”

And then Hinata was off, her face blazing red. She was ashamed that she had hit them so aggressively with her Gentle Fist Justu. She had panicked in the moment, had wanted them to stop before they seriously hurt each other. But now she mortified that she had attacked her new team members. Once she was far enough away, she sank to the ground, her chakra depleted a little from the attack and from using her Byakugan. She let her eyes rest.

Back where she had left them, Kiba and Shino were groaning as they sat up. Akamaru, free of beetles, was licking at Kiba’s face while Shino’s beetles converged around Shino’s shoulder, sensing the chakra disturbance there.

“What was that?” Kiba asked, standing up and leaning against the hedge. His body felt like he had got hit by a ton of bricks, but the pain was manageable. Shino was doing the same, gripping his shoulder.

“Probably some Hyuga thing, her Byakugan was activated,” Shino said. He could tell something wasn’t right with his shoulder.

“Her Byaku-what?”

Shino rolled his eyes, “Her Byakugan. Didn’t you pay attention at all during Iruka’s lessons on kekkai genkai? Certain clans have special bloodline ninjutsu. He used Hinata’s Byakugan as an example?”

Kiba scratched his head, “So like how my family has affinity for ninja dogs, and yours for bugs?”

“No,” Shino said, some exasperation coming through his voice, “that’s not important now.”

Kiba was regaining a few of his senses, could feel his chakra returning a little bit, and the ache of his muscles around it. Shino felt his chakra slowly creep back, but there was something out of place in his shoulder, his beetles still crawling all over it.

“I didn’t expect that from her, she was always so small and quiet in class,” Kiba said, looking in the direction where Hinata had ran.

“I’m surprised you even have the observation skills to notice what she or anyone else was like,” Shino said curtly, trying to move his shoulder. But he couldn’t, instead he was hit with a wave of pain, and let out a groan in response.

“You know I’m not as much of an idiot—” Kiba said, but paused when he heard Shino groan, “What’s wrong.”

Shino spoke through gritted teeth, annoyed that this was happening. “She hit me more times than you, four strokes to your two, and I think the force of the chakra displacement knocked my shoulder out of place.”

“How did you even manage to count the hits?”

“Irrelevant,” Shino said curtly, “What’s important is finding one of the teacups.”

“Yeah sure, but you gonna do that with a messed-up shoulder?” Kiba asked.

“Plenty of ninja have done a lot more on a lot worse. Pain is just a mind game; I can win it,” Shino said, using his good arm to wave off his beetles’ concern, to usher them back inside of him.

Kiba smiled to himself, admiring that. He still thought Shino was a jerk, but at least he had some grit.

“Or I could help you with that,” Kiba offered, “Pop it back into place.”

“Says the ninja who was attacking without cause a few minutes ago,” Shino responded dryly.

“Eh,” Kiba said, still sore from his own injuries but happy he didn’t have to deal with an out of place shoulder, “I was just letting off some steam.”

Shino considered him for a moment. For the last few minutes, Kiba had seemed calm. He was still recovering from Hinata’s attack he knew, but if that idiot had intended to attack him, he probably would have the moment he felt his chakra flowing again.

“Okay, help me fix it.”

“It’s the least a teammate could do,” Kiba said with a soft chuckle. He walked forward and without build up or warning, grabbed at Shino’s shoulder and pushed it up and over, hearing the click as the bone settled back in its proper place.

Shino hissed through his teeth, the pain of pushing it back rushing over him, but a relief too, that he could feel the flowing of his chakra again “Some warning would’ve been nice.”

Kiba just smiled at him, “I think you mean, thanks teammate”

Before Shino could respond, however, there was a scream. A scream that was distinctly female. They both glanced at each other quickly, nodded, and then ran toward the sound.

Hinata was catching her breath as she sat up. She had fallen into a hidden pit, landing flat on her chest, and screaming as she went. She was ashamed at herself for falling, even more ashamed that she hadn’t seen this trap. Kurenai had warned them about them, and yet Hinata had fallen in one.

She looked up above her, a square of sky at least fifty feet above her shone down a spotlight of sun. She activated her Byakugan, looked around her. But the walls were solid dirt in all directions, it was just a straight down tunnel. Above her, she sensed movement, and watched, as Kiba, Shino, and Akamaru ran up.

“Hinata!” Kiba shouted down, his voice echoing as it reached her.

“Y-yes!” she said, yelling back.

Kiba turned to Shino, “What do you think we should do?”

“What do you mean what should we do, this is good for us. It means we’re the two to find the teacups,” Shino said. He felt bad for Hinata, sure, but logically, this was better for the search.

“Come on man,” Kiba said, “I know you can’t be that heartless.”

Shino felt a twinge then. Like Kiba, his only impression of Hinata was that she was a shy, gloomy girl. She hadn’t made a fool of herself in class like Naruto or Kiba usually did, but she also hadn’t been too impressive either. Then again, she had just knocked his shoulder out of place and disrupted his chakra flow with a few soft hits. She deserved just as much of a chance as they did.

“Fine,” Shino said, and then directed his voice down the hole, “Hinata, can you channel your chakra in your feet to climb the wall?”

“I think I can!” Hinata shouted back. Iruka had taught them about channeling chakra into certain areas of their body, but they had never actually practiced it.

Hinata concentrated, watched the flow of her chakra move throughout her body with her Byakugan. And then she directed that chakra, the soft glow of it moving to the soles of her feet. She felt it then, the sureness it gave her against gravity. She stood up, took a running start, and ran toward the wall. And suddenly she was horizontal, the chakra in her feet keeping her in place as she ran up the wall. But the concentration was hard to keep as she moved, the chakra weakening. She was twenty, fifteen, ten feet away from the entrance when her chakra control ran out and she fell backwards, panicking for a moment, and then turning herself to land heavily on her feet.

Her face was red, from exertion, and for not being good enough in front of her teammates, “I’m sorry, I’ll try again.”

And she did try again, running with the same force as before. Shino, keeping track of just how short she had fell before looked at Kiba. “Get on your stomach.”

“What?”

“We’re going to grab her before she runs out, I’ll hold you,” Shino said.

Kiba was going to say something in protest but realized that Hinata was nearly to the top again, her face squeezed in frustration, like she was running out of juice. He fell to his stomach, Shino grabbed his ankles and leaned him over the hole, Akamaru grabbing unto Shino’s jacket with his teeth for good measure.

Kiba leaned over, “Grab my hand!”

Hinata could feel and see her chakra loosening, saw Kiba’s waiting hand, she only had to take a few more steps and there…she grabbed Kiba’s hand and with a grunt, Shino and Akamaru pulled Kiba and Hinata over, all of Team 8 landing in a pile. Akamaru bounded over to Hinata as they sat up, licking her face in excitement. Hinata giggled and let out a grin, a smile taking over her entire face.

“Thank you both,” she said, the same smile on her face. Kiba and Shino was struck silent for a moment, never having seen Hinata smile before in class. She was surprisingly cute when she smiled like that.

Shino recovered himself, “It’s only fair.”

“And I’m sorry I hit you both gentle fist earlier,” Hinata said, her smile falling away, “I panicked.”

“No hard feelings,” Kiba said, popping up, Akamaru jumping on top of his head. The other two stood up too, and for a moment, they all stood in silence. The awkward silence of people who know each other but don’t _know_ each other, of pre-teens just learning about how to be people around other people.

It was Hinata who finally broke the silence, “So, um, I guess we find the teacups now.”

“That was the objective,” Shino reminded them.

“What if we worked together?” Hinata asked, deciding for a second that they should give teamwork a try. She was still a bit embarrassed that she had fallen in a trap, but happy that they were there to help her. She thought, too, that they could probably all help each other find the teacups too.

“But there’s only two teacups,” Kiba said.

“I know, I just, uh…” Hinata said nervously, “never mind.”

Shino sensed Hinata’s hesitation, and a for a second, he felt the same push toward teamwork that she had. Of course, he thought, they could probably track more quickly if worked together. Only two of them could pass, but maybe, maybe that could be decided later.

“She’s right, working together is the best way to track things. Especially since we all have skills that complement each other,” Shino explained, “It’s the most logical way to complete the task, rules or not.”

Kiba was surprised to hear that someone like Shino, someone who seemed like a stick in the mud, was so quick to break rules. It excited him, “What the hell, let’s do this!”

In that moment, something clicked, Chance took hold.

Kiba told them about his and Akamaru’s advanced sense of smell, told them how he was sniffing out tea before he decided to ‘have a little fun,’ as he called it, with Shino. Hinata suggested that if they were going to start their search with smell, then maybe that sniff out a scent of clay, as ichi teapots were usually made from that. Shino let a few of his beetles out, said they would fly ahead of them throughout their search, alert them of any other traps. After half an hour of dead trail, and warnings about several traps that they hastily avoided, Kiba and Akamaru locked unto a clay scent. They led others through twists and turns until they came to a corner, where there rested a small clay teapot. Hinata sensed something strange about the teapot and with her Byakugan, saw that this teapot has traces of chakra within its clay, like someone had dusted it with energy just for this reason. They could use her Byakugan to find the next one, and she led the search for the second teapot. With her extended vision, she saw it, far ahead of them, a dusty, small concentration of chakra. They tried to follow the path using her eyes, but the maze was impossible. Shino used his beetles to fly high overhead the maze, developed the quickest route they could take to the second teapot. The directions were perfect, the second teapot just as secure as the first.

And then the sun was setting, they were leaving the maze, both teacups in hand. Kurenai was waiting for them at the maze’s entrance.

“So, who are the lucky two who ended up with the teapots, or was it all you Hinata?” Kurenai asked, eyes moving the two teapots in Hinata’s small hands.

“No, not me. Actually, if you’re going to pass anyone, you should pass Shino and Kiba,” Hinata said, pushing the one teapot into each of their hands, “We wouldn’t have found the teapots without them.”

Kurenai raised an eyebrow.

“No that’s ridiculous, you’re the one who saw the chakra of the second one with your eyes, that would’ve been way too far for me and Akamaru to sniff out, “ Kiba said, giving one of the teapots back to Hinata.

“Actually,” Shino said lowly, “Kiba and Akamaru’s ability to track even the slightest of scents is impressive.”

Shino handed the teapot in his hands to Kiba.

Kiba looked down in shock, “Dude, we would’ve been stuck in that maze forever if it wasn’t for your bugs.”

“Actually—” Hinata started, but Kurenai interrupted her.

“That’s enough. You’re telling me you all worked together to find the teapots, that you’re all willing to let your teammates take the win while you return to the academy?”

Of course, Kurenai already knew this, had seen all the action from the watchtower. She had grimaced at Kiba and Shino’s early fighting, had been shocked that Hinata was able to knock both boys down so quickly. Had cheered them on when they were helping Hinata out of the trapped. Had been proud as she watched all their teamwork in finding the teacups. And now this, their ability to recognize each other’s contributions, to want the best for their teammates, it was more than she could ever ask for.

Kiba, Shino, and Hinata considered Kurenai’s question. Hinata knew her father would be disappointed but decided that it couldn’t be any worse than it already was. Shino didn’t particularly hate the academy, and he knew there was always more he could learn, so he wouldn’t mind going back. Kiba was the first person in his family to graduate from the academy of on his first try so he knew they wouldn’t care much if he took another try.

“No, I don’t mind going back,” Hinata said.

“Eh, I’d go back to the academy,” Kiba said with a shrug.

“It’d be good to learn more,” Shino said.

A bright smile pulled across Kurenai’s face. This was it, this was her team, the moment she was waiting for.

“Congratulations, you all passed.”

At first, Kiba, Shino, and Hinata were confused. But then Kurenai explained about teamwork, about putting your teammates before yourself, about how one of the earliest lessons you can learn as a ninja is to learn to work together, to work to help each other. They were a team, in the maze, and that’s how they proved themselves as genin.

They had played with Chance that day, taken a risk when they chose to look for the teapots together. Chance smiled down on as they walked away together. Fate, always cranky and forever berating the way Chance thrived in the uncontrollable, gave a rare nod of approval.

Yes, Team 8, was a team brought together by mere Chance, but that’s what would keep them together as well.

* * *

Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Chouji Akamichi were confused. They had just graduated from the academy and right after, were dragged off by their fathers for a celebration dinner. Now their fathers were chuckling as they led all three of them into the woods, drunk from glass after glass of sake they had at the restaurant, telling tall tales of their times as teammates.

They knew their fathers had all been teammates but didn’t understand why they needed to know so much about it, why their fathers were embarrassing them with their silly jokes and overly enthusiastic smiles. And now this, dragging them into the woods late at night, not giving them a single hint about the destination.

“Come on, we’re almost there,” Choza called as they turned deeper into the woods.

“Where are we even going?” Ino whined.

“Don’t worry daughter, you’re gonna love it,” Inoichi said with a chuckle. Choza and Shikaku joined him with laughter and smiles.

“Man, this is such a drag,” Shikamaru said, pulling his feet along the ground.

“I mean, at least we got good grub out of it,” Chouji said, remembering how good the seared meat, crisp veggies, and spicy noodles had been at the restaurant.

“We’re here!” Shikaku shouted, all three men pausing in front of a giant stone.

The stone was huge, standing taller than any of them, settled between a small clearing in the woods. Carved at the top, they recognized the symbols of each of their individual clans – Yamanaka, Naru, Akamichi. And below their clan symbols were lists and lists of names, paired together in threes.

Shikaku, Choza, and Inoichi all reached their hands out to the stone, closed their eyes, and took in a deep breath. They all felt like they had been waiting for this moment for a long time, and slowly, they turned back their children.

“Tomorrow, you’re going to receive your team assignments and just like us, you’ll be paired together,” Inoichi began.

“Long ago, our three clans made a promise to work together to protect the Leaf Village. They formed a team which they called the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, it was the form our team too, and it’s the form your team will take,” Shikaku added.

“Since that promise, we’ve had fifteen generations of Ino-Shika-Cho formations. Your team will be the sixteenth generation,” Choza said.

“This stone commemorates the names of everyone who has been on an Ino-Shika-Cho team. These are your ancestors and you’re they’re legacy,” Inoichi said, a proud smile at the young ninja in front of them.

“That’s like a weird amount of pressure to put on new genin,” Shikamaru said, already exhausted enough at the idea of being a ninja, and now he has to maintain a whole legacy.

Shikaku, Inoichi, and Choza laughed at that.

“Don’t worry son, you’ll understand the importance of that legacy eventually,” Shikaku said.

“So, you’re saying that our families have worked together since the start of the Leaf Village, that there was never any chance of me having any other teammates besides Shikamaru or Chouji?” Ino asked, disappointed at the potential of being on Sasuke’s team.

“Yes, that was always going to happen,” Inoichi answered.

“Well I think you’re both pretty cool, this should be fun,” Chouji said with a grin, just happy that he wasn’t going to get stuck with anyone he didn’t particularly like or know. He considered Shikamaru a close friend, and Ino was nice whenever she wasn’t moping over Sasuke.

“That’s the spirit” Choza said, a matching grin spreading across his face.

“As you work together as a team, it will make more sense, you’ll understand why our clans have worked together for so long,” Shikaku said, pulling something out of his bag. He nodded to Choza and Inoichi, who reached into their bags as well.

“As a team, we wear these earrings, to signify our connection. To demonstrate our responsibility to this legacy,” Choza said, offering the earring to Chouji. Inoichi handed his to Ino and Shikaku to Shikamaru.

“We want you to keep these, put them on when you feel it, when you know, unequivocally, that you’re a team,” Inochi said.

Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru looked between each other. Their fathers had moved from jubilant to serious so quickly, had suddenly given them the weight of a family legacy, had set them out with the task of understanding themselves as a team. It felt heavier than they could handle, but even so, they took the earrings from their father and gazed at the stone before them, at the names and history and lives that had come before them.

In some way, Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji had sense they would always be teammates. So when their dads had told them about the Ino-Shika-Cho Formation, that it had been the way for generations upon generations, they weren’t surprised. They couldn’t explain it, but it felt right, felt like it made sense, in a way.

Fate knew what the three young ninja did not know. It knew the ways they were bound, even when, the next day, facing the Jounin that would now be their teacher, they couldn’t sense those bonds at all.

Asuma looked at the three young ninja before him. They didn’t look like much. Shikamaru looked on the verge of sleeping, Ino looked bored, Chouji was digging around in his pack, distracted by snacks. But these three, if they passed the test today, would become the new Ino-Shika-Cho Formation. He had worked with their fathers before, knew how much their teamwork meant to them. If they had instilled their children with any of their same sense, this would be an easy test for them to pass, not that Asuma was going to any easier on them because of it.

“Today, I’ll be giving you a test,” Asuma began.

“Another test, I thought now that we’re genin, we’d actually do some training or some missions,” Ino said.

“Oh, you’ll get to that,” Asuma explained, “but only after you prove yourself to me first.”

“Didn’t we already prove ourselves at the graduation exam?” Shikamaru asked.

“You proved something, but that’s not enough for me.”

He could see an edgy look in their eyes, a sudden, small fear of him being their Jounin instructor. This is where he wanted them, to take him and what they were about to do, seriously. He had their attention now.

“Today we’re going to play a game. Each of you will be given a stone,” he said, pulling out the painted red stones from his bag. “It is up to you to hide it and protect your stone by whatever means necessary. Everyone, myself included, will be trying to take the stone from you within the next hour. Whoever manages to retrieve all three stones by the end of the hour passes. And those without stones fail.”

“What happens if you fail?” Chouji asked.

“Simple, you get sent back to the academy,” Asuma said with a smirk.

“What do you mean we’ll go back?” Ino asked, frustration tinging her voice. The other two looked just as frustrated.

“It means exactly what I said, you’ll get sent back to the academy. While those who pass will continue to be genin,” Asuma explained.

“But if there are only three stones and you have to have all three to pass, that means only one of us can pass,” Shikamaru said, this sudden truth dawning on him.

“Or none of you pass,” Asuma said.

“How could none of us pass?” Chouji asked, exasperated.

“Don’t forget that I’ll be looking for the stones too,” Asuma said, placing the heavy painted stones in each of their hands, “And if I steal stones from all of you, no one passes.”

“But—” Ino began but Asuma cut her off.

“Sorry, but those are the rules. I’ll be nice and give you a head start to hide your stones. You have five minutes until the hour begins,” Asuma said.

Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru each felt a sinking feeling in their gut, and annoyance too. What was the point of the dinner, of the showing them the stone, of the earrings that rested in each of their pockets if they had no chance of being genin? But what choice did they have, they each thought, they didn’t want to go back to the academy. Gripping the stones tightly in their hands, they all dove into the woods.

It was Shikamaru who felt it first, a tight ball in his gut, like a rope ripping him back. And he remembered Asuma’s words, he said ‘whoever manages to retrieve all three stones’ – that didn’t necessarily have to be singular. Ino felt it next, like a rope wrapping around her ankle, slowing her speed. She remembered what her dad had said last night – that they needed to be, unequivocally, a team. Chouji felt is last, like his head was wrapped up, turning him in a different direction. He remembered how happy he was to be teamed up with Shikamaru and Ino, how he couldn’t picture being teammates with anyone else. They all changed their courses, looking for each other.

Asuma sucked on a cigarette, listening to them as they disappeared into the woods. He would go after Chouji first, then Ino, and finally, Shikamaru – taking them on in order of the way their profiles, which he had read last night, listed their strengths and talents. But they could wait until he took his final drag.

In the woods, it only took a few minutes for the three genin to find each other.

“I was looking for you guys,” Shikamaru said.

“Yeah, me too” Ino and Chouji said, almost in unison.

“I think I have an idea,” Shikamaru said, “I think we should work together.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking!” Chouji said, excited.

“I mean, I agree,” Ino said hesitantly, “But doesn’t that mean none of us would pass since none of us would be able to get the three stones by ourselves if we’re working together.”

“But that’s exactly it, we already have three stones if we’re together. Instructor Asuma said whoever retrieves three stones passes, which means, technically, we can all three make claims on all three stones,” Shikamaru explained.

“That makes sense, he never specified that an individual had to have the stones,” Ino said with a smile.

“And together,” Choui said, a grin on his face, “we may be strong enough to hold him off when he comes after our stones.”

“Exactly,” Shikamaru said, a smirk showing up on his face, “Now, let’s make a plan.”

Asuma jumped into the woods. Ahead of him, he noticed some broken branches low to the ground. Of the three, Chouji kept his stance the lowest when he ran, this must be where that kid was headed. He followed the trail, jumping down when he saw a flash of a green jacket ahead in a small clearing.

Only, it wasn’t only Chouji. Standing in front of him were all three of them, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji, the three painted stones stacked behind them.

“Interesting,” Asuma said, taking a step toward him. Only he couldn’t take a step forward, his legs felt cemented to the ground. He looked down, a long shadow was spread between him and Shikamaru, who held hand signs out toward him. The Nara specialty, shadow binding.

“Even more interesting,” Asuma said, concentrating his chakra in his feet. He could feel the grip of the shadow loosening, could feel how weak Shikamaru’s hold was.

“Chouji now!” Shikamaru shouted, and then a second later a pair of hands was flying toward Asuma. He responded quickly, pulling his feet from Shikamaru’s shadow hold, but not fast enough. Chouji’s enlarged hands flew around him, catching him in a tight grip. This too, was a clan specialty, the Akamichi clan.

But this had to take an enormous amount of chakra and already, he could feel Chouji’s grip weakening. He started to wriggle his shoulders, loosening the grip.

“If you try to escape, I’ll use mind transfer on you,” Ino shouted, making her hands ready and in formation. And this was it, the final clan specialty, Yamanaka.

Asuma could dodge that jutsu, he knew. And Chouji’s grip was going to let up any second. They had surprised him at first, but now that he knew their tactics, it would be a piece of cake to get the stones from them. They hadn’t even tried to hide them. But what was the point, they were already working together, bypassing all the fun of the test and getting straight to the part where they understood each other.

Instead, Asuma just started laughing. They truly were their parents children, the infamous Ino-Shika-Cho formation taking such easy hold in front of his eyes.

After a moment, Chouji’s grip faltered and he let Asuma go. Ino readied herself for her mind transfer jutsu but noticed that Asuma wasn’t making any moves to go forward. He just kept laughing, and then finally, after they had all glanced each other in confusion, Asuma stopped laughing.

“Okay,” Asuma said, a smile crossing his face, “you guys pass.”

For a moment, they were all confused. But then Iruka explained that this test was about teamwork, that all Jounin set their ninja teams up with tests that were supposed to incite competition, that only the genin who overcame that competition and worked together could pass. He explained to them that most genin didn’t pass, that most didn’t realize the importance of teamwork, that Team 10 must be something special.

And Team 10 was something special. Later that night, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji met up, standing in front of the stone their fathers had showed them the night before. They all reached out their hands to the stone, running their fingers over the names of their greatest of grandparents, their fathers’ names, and finally, just added this afternoon, their own names. They smiled at each other and put on their earrings.

If Chance had eyes to roll, this would be the time to do it. It was all so boring and predictable, without any action or drama or intrigue. Boring and predictable, just like Fate always was. Fate shrugged Chance off, just happy to have something easy.

Team 10 wouldn’t always have the easiest of time, but they would always be fated to be teammates. 

* * *

Kakashi Hatake wasn’t too impressed with his students. The tiny blonde one was overexcited and set his expectations too high. He was told the pink-haired girl was smart, but she seemed too preoccupied with an obvious crush on Sasuke to have any sort of intelligent thought. And the black-haired boy, he was smug and angsty, a little too much like Kakashi himself when he was younger. He couldn’t really recall their names from their introductions the day before. Hadn’t read over their profiles. That would come later, if they impressed him enough. If they passed his test.

“Good morning all,” Kakashi said, strolling up to the training ground he had asked them to meet at. They didn’t look to happy to see him.

“Are you always this late?” the blonde-haired one asked obnoxiously.

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, “A black cat passed me while I was walking here so I had to take the long way.”

“That’s not a real excuse,” the girl spoke up.

“It is for me,” Kakashi says nonchalantly. Of course, the blonde boy and pink-haired girl would be the ones to complain.

“So, why’d you want us to meet you here so early anyway?” the small kid piped up, voice too loud and overexcited for the morning.

Kakashi smirked, he liked this part.

“Simple,” he began, holding up the two small bells he had brought with him, “today I’m going to put you through a test. Your mission is to get these bells from me by whatever means necessary. All jutsu and weapons are allowed. You should be prepared to come after as if your life depends on it.”

The blonde-haired kid let out a laugh, “We just need to get the bells from you? That’s easy. How is that a test anyway?”

“Ah,” Kakashi said, “you didn’t let me finish. If you fail to retrieve one of these bells by noon, you fail. And if you fail, you’re sent back to the academy for remedial studies.”

“What?! No, that’s not fair! I’m not going back to the academy!” the blond kid screeched. The black-haired kid rolled his eyes. The girl’s face fell. 

“Sorry, but if you do not get a bell, you fail. And failing is proof that you need more training,” Kakashi said, smiling under his mask. He had yet to find a team that had met his standards, and he didn’t suspect this would be any different. Of course, these were some of Iruka’s genin, so maybe it would be different.

“But Instructor Kakashi,” the girl said, her voice softer than her complaints from earlier. Scared, he could tell, “there are only two bells.”

“Exactly.”

“What do you mean by that?” she asked.

“He means,” the black-haired boy said, finally speaking up, “that only two of us can get bells. That only two of us can pass.”

“Exactly,” Kakashi repeated.

“Then what’s the point of even putting us on teams if one of us is going to get sent back to the academy?” the girl asked, her voice getting shrill.

Kakashi was happy to see she was already thinking about them as a team, but for now, he still needed to impose a competitive challenge for them to overcome, “To see who is the most competent ninja of the three of you. That is, if you can get the bells at all. Any one of you who does not get a bell will fail.”

“And that means,” the darker hair kid said, “that we could all be sent back to the ninja academy.”

Kakashi nodded. All three of them looked like they had reactions for that, but he stopped them, eager for this to be over with, “Too many questions, not enough action. The test begins in one minute, I suggest you find good hiding place.”

Within seconds, the taller boy and girl were off, diving into the woods that surrounded them, Kakashi heard the noise of their feet for a bit, but then the sound fell off. He glanced around at the spots where they disappeared and saw nothing. Well, at least they were good at hiding. Being quiet and unheard was pretty essential to being a ninja.

But Kakashi sensed that they weren’t all gone, and he was right. Standing in front of him was the small, blonde, annoying one.

“I’m not hiding like a chump!” the kid shouted, and then, with a barreling roll, came after Kakashi.

In the trees a hundred feet away, Sasuke watched as Naruto ran toward Kakashi. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He couldn’t believe, when they were assigned teams yesterday, that he got stuck with Naruto Uzumaki. Of course, Iruka explained that it was because Sasuke was the highest scoring student in the class and Naruto was the lowest, they were put together to keep balance. To Sasuke, that meant that he would have to pick up whatever slack Naruto caused. And the girl, Sakura, she was nothing special either. Sometimes she had some intelligent stuff to say in class, but for the most part, she was just one of a handful of the annoying girls who mooned over him. Whatever, Sasuke thought, after today, both of them will be gone anyway.

Sakura, a little further away than Sasuke, was hiding in the bushes. She couldn’t believe this was happening, that one of them or all of them would have to be sent back to the academy. When teams were assigned, she was ridiculously excited to be teamed up with Sasuke, but equally as annoyed to be teamed up with Naruto. From inside the clearing, Sakura heard Naruto shout about not being a chump and watched as he went toward Kakashi head on. Hiding, being covert, that was the only chance that a genin would have at stealing something from a full Jounin. Attacking him head on like this was exactly the reason why Naruto wouldn’t pass this test.

Naruto, of course, had no idea what Sakura and Sasuke were thinking, and wouldn’t care anyway. All he cared about was not having to go back to the Academy. Nothing would stop him from reaching his dreams of becoming Hokage, not even this Jounin. Naruto ran forward, ready to kick his ass…

But! Kakashi stopped Naruto’s kicks and hit in a flash, moving faster than Naruto could even see him, his arms like concrete that Naruto could not budge. And then in an instant, without Naruto even knowing how it happened, he was flying back, landing on the ground with a hard thud.

Kakashi watched at the kid fly back, wondering if he had thrown him too hard. He had been so slow and predictable, Kakashi barely had to move to stop his attacks. Barely had to exert himself to toss him away.

“You’re not stopping me,” Naruto yelled, jumping up. He ran toward Kakashi again, determined to hit him with all his might.

In their hiding places, Sasuke and Sakura watched as once again, Kakashi dodged or blocked every single one of Naruto’s hit. Each time, he barely moved, or he moved too fast for them to catch it. Sakura felt a sinking feeling in her gut as Naruto was pushed back Kakashi again, this Jounin was too good. Sasuke chuckled at how easily Naruto was thrown off, surely that wouldn’t happen to him.

And then, as Naruto rounded for a third attack, they both saw it, Kakashi slowly and deliberately reaching into his vest. They both tensed for a second, not believing that a Jounin would stoop so low to pull actual weapons out on a genin. But it wasn’t a weapon, it was…a book.

Kakashi figured that he might as well get some light reading done while fending off this kid, that if he was any indicator of what the other two were like, this was going to be a quick test. But when Kakashi took a second to glance up at the book, he saw that there wasn’t just one kid running at him, but twenty – he had cloned himself. He had heard that there was a genin who had somehow mastered multi-shadow clone jutsu, had used it to take down that punk Mizuki, but he had never imagined it was this kid. Maybe the reading would have to wait.

In a yelling flash, all of the Naruto clones were on Kakashi. Some of them he fought off just as easily as before, disappearing in a quick puff of smoke. But others made a hold, gripping him at each arm and leg, stopping his motions. Another landed on his back.

“I got you now!” the kid shouted in glee. In their hiding spots, Sasuke and Sakura were in a little bit of shock, surprised that Naruto managed to get ahold of this Jounin. Another Naruto appears, this one the real one, ready to rear a punch on the restrained Kakashi, but when the punch lands, it’s not Kakashi, it’s on another Naruto, trapped in the arms of his clones instead of Kakashi.

“What?!” the echoes of all the Naruto and shouted, all reeling back from the punch. Just as suddenly as the new Naruto appeared, Kakashi was there, in the midst of them, throwing hits and kicks, pushing Naruto and all of his clones away and disappearing just as quickly.

“What the hell!” he shouted, looking up, but doesn’t see Kakashi around.

Sasuke and Sakura are still watching, guessing at the jutsu Kakashi just used to avoid Naruto’s attack. On edge, because without Kakashi in sight, it meant they could be at risk too.

Naruto, recovering from the attack and feeling a few new aches all over his body stood up. And then he saw it, a bell! Lying at the base of a tree, glinting in the sunlight. His attack must have had some effect, he must have dropped the bell. Naruto chuckled to himself and ran toward it. But just as he was reaching for a bell, a net appeared, wrapping around him and pulling him into a hanging position from the tree.

Kakashi laughed and walked out from the spot behind the tree. The kid may have thrown him off guard for just a second with all those clones, but it had been nothing to trick him and fight them off. He had laid the trap half as a joke, not thinking any of them would fall for it.

“That was a trap! That’s not fair,” the kid whined, pushing and pulling at the net.

“Of course, it was a trap,” Kakashi said, a little annoyed that the kid would claim it wasn’t fair, “Ninjas lay traps all the time. You can’t say it’s not fair because you were stupid enough to fall for it. If anything, you should be mad at yourself for not being smart enough to realize it was one. Ninjas have to be perceptive. Didn’t Iruka teach you anything?”

While Kakashi lectured Naruto, Sasuke realized something. Kakashi was distracted. This was his chance. Very quietly, he pulled some shuriken from his pouch. Kakashi had told them to be prepared to come after him as if their life depended on it, and after seeing how easily Kakashi had fended off Naruto’s taijutsu and clones, he knew he would need more. He released the throwing stars with a quick flick of his wrist, watched as they soared through the air in a perfect arch and made a perfect hit.

But, just as quickly as before, which is to say Sasuke did not see it, where Kakashi was standing was a log, a replacement jutsu that took the brunt of his shuriken. Sasuke jumped up in a flash, knowing his location was compromised. Before Sasuke even moved a few feet, Kakashi was there, jumping in front of him.

“Hi,” Kakashi said, a grin behind his mask.

“Just to warn you,” Sasuke said, a cocky edge in his voice, “I’m not an idiot like Naruto or hiding out like Sakura.”

“An ego like that is going to get you nowhere,” Kakashi said. Sasuke grinned at him. His little speech had been a trick, a distraction while a clone he made earlier snuck up behind Kakashi, launching an attack.

Kakashi turned around quickly. He caught the heel of the clone’s foot as it kicked at him, gripped its wrists as it tried to hit him, and threw it back against the tree. But that clone, too, was a distraction, because two more shuriken were coming his way. Kakashi caught them with his fingers, stopping them mid-spin, and launched them back at the kid, who disappeared in a puff of smoke. Another clone, then, which meant the real one was around here somewhere, ready to come at him. Kakashi heard for a moment, the a barely there noise of the kid coming at him from down low. He jumped up and over him, and heard for a second, the clinking of a bell. When he landed, he took a quick glance at his side. Both bells were still there, but the kid had managed to touch one of them.

“No bad,” Kakashi said, looking at the boy as he landed in front of him.

“I told you I was better,” Sasuke said with a smirk. This kid was definitely better than the other boy, quicker, stronger, and a little bit better at strategizing, but that attitude, he wouldn’t get too far. But then Kakashi saw it, the kid’s hand moving to make a jutsu, its patterns familiar. Something to do with fire. Genin shouldn’t be strong enough to do that jutsu. But apparently this one could, because a fireball was launching right at him.

Sasuke felt the force of his chakra spin throughout the fireball, knew there was no way this Jounin could escape. Suddenly, Sasuke felt a sharp tug, and before he knew it, he was falling, no, being pulled, underground. He could sense the soft earth burying him up to his neck.

Kakashi walked through the dissipating smoke of the fire and approached him. Sasuke glared up at him, knowing that it must have been a jutsu that had that dragged him underground.

“You know, you’re not wrong. You are stronger than your teammates. But a good ninja helps his teammates, he doesn’t belittle them. I’m sure you have time to think about that while you dig yourself out” Kakashi said, before leaving Sasuke in a flash.

In another part of the training grounds, Sakura was moving quickly through the woods. She had seen the shuriken moving through the clearing, had watched them hit a piece of wood, had seen the real Kakashi move impossibly fast into the woods. He was after Sasuke, he had to be. She didn’t want him to hurt Sasuke. Kakashi had been tough on Naruto, but so far, the worst he had done was trap him in a net. But maybe he would be harder on Sasuke because he had thrown ninja stars. Sakura ran faster.

And then she froze abruptly, Kakashi was there, landing on the branch in front of her.

“Hi there,” he said, raising his hand.

Sakura screamed and ran in the opposite direction. If he was looking for her, that meant his fight with Sasuke was over. She needed to protect herself from whatever this Jounin could do. Watching her run away, Kakashi decided to see what she could handle. He made the signs for a simple genjutsu.

Sakura was running, but not fast enough to not see tree below her. She saw something, something that looked a lot like Sasuke. She jumped down to see more. It was Sasuke, but he was lying on the ground, cuts all over him, shuriken sticking out of vital places. There was so much blood.

“Sakura,” Sasuke said weakly, reaching toward her.

“Sasuke!” Sakura yelled, diving toward him, hot tears pouring out of her. She couldn’t believe this, couldn’t believe that a Jounin would attack a genin like this. Couldn’t believe that Sasuke was so hurt. She started sobbing over his body.

Kakashi, far up in the trees, could see all of them. The boy trapped in the net, kicking and tearing at its strands, too idiotic to even think about using any ninja weapons to cut through. The cocky one, still buried in the dirt, groaning as he tried to urge his shoulders out. And the girl, crying over such a simple genjutsu. There was no way these kids would pass the test.

But then something shifted. Fate and Chance nodded at each other; it was time.

For a few more seconds, Sakura kept crying, reaching toward Sasuke’s bleeding body. But when she touched him, his skin dissolved like sand. A rush of happiness pushed through her; this must be a gentjutsu. And Sakura knew exactly how to deal with those, making the hand signs to release it, watching as the nightmarish image of Sasuke trickled away.

Sakura got up, a new, strange determination pulsing through her. She moved through the woods quickly and stopped when she saw a familiar head of hair, Sasuke’s head and shoulders sticking out of the ground. This, she could tell, wasn’t a genjutsu. Another wave of relief washed over her; this was much easier to deal with than what she thought Kakashi had done to Sasuke.

“I can help you,” she said, reaching toward Sasuke.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at her, “I can handle it myself.”

“Sasuke,” she said, loving getting to say his name, “We don’t have time, it’s almost noon”

“Whatever,” Sasuke said, annoyed that she was right, “Sure, help me.”

Sakura grabbed unto to Sasuke’s shoulders, blushing a little as she felt his muscles there. With a few strong pulls from her and Sasuke pushing against the sand, he was out, dusting the dirt off.

“Come on, let’s get Naruto,” Sakura said, trying to pull him forward to the clearing.

“Why would we want to help that idiot?”

“Can you just trust me?” Sakura said. She had a feeling about this, a feeling that the strange ideas spinning in her head would work. Sasuke felt a strange feeling too, instead of being annoyed by her insistence that they find Naruto, he felt like he should trust her.

“I guess,” he said, letting out a sigh of resignation as he followed her. Kakashi could be anywhere, he knew, and he needed to get a bell soon, but he felt oddly calm about following Sakura into the clearing.

“Oh, hey guys,” Naruto said with a chuckle as they approached him, still trapped in the net, “Watcha up to? I’m just hanging around.”

Sakura and Sasuke both rolled their eyes at Naruto’s attempt of a joke. Sakura pulled out a kunai and threw it at the top of the net, cutting the rope and dropping the Naruto to the ground with a thud.

“Thanks Sakura!” Naruto said, popping up.

“Did you even think about using the shuriken and kunai you had on you, you idiot?” Sasuke said with disdain.

Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but Sakura shushed him.

“Guys, we need to work together, not bicker. It’s the only way three genin are going to have a chance against a Jounin,” she said, looking at both of them with a pleading look.

“But there are only two bells” Naruto said, confused.

“Yeah,” Sasuke added, gritting his teeth, “and I’m not going to give up my chance at being a ninja. I have a mission; I have something I need to do.”

“It’s obvious there are only two bells. But can we just agree that we need to work together to get the bells and debate how who earned them later,” Sakura said, trying to get them to see what was obvious to her. She knew it was risky, knew that only two of them could pass, but there was something that was telling her this was right, that they needed to work together.

Sasuke knew that if he had another chance and more time, he could probably take on Kakshi alone. But the sun had almost reached the middle of the sky, it was nearly noon. Time was more important here. He just needed to make sure a bell was in his hand by noon. It didn’t matter how he got there. Naruto, too, thought about the lack of time. Thought too that he could probably figure out a way to make sure he and Sakura got the bells in the end, get rid of that lousy Sasuke.

“Sure,” both boys said, almost in unison.

“Okay, then let’s make a plan,” Sakura said, a smile on her face.

Above them, high in the trees, Kakashi watched the whole thing, from the girl undoing the genjutsu, to pulling out the little egomaniac, to freeing the little idiot, and somehow convincing the boys to work together. He was surprised she had been the one to shine through, surprised a girl that had seemed so weak would be the one that had saved the boys and pushed for teamwork. Then again, Kira, long gone now, would have told him that he was being sexist by assuming the girl was weaker than the boys. She was right, of course.

Kakashi watched as they dove off into the wood, probably to plan whatever they were doing. He jumped back into the clearing after they left, pulled out his book. Might as well get some reading done to see what they came up with.

In the wood, Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto watched Kakashi appeared back in the clearing, watched him pull out the same book as before.

“Ready?” Sakura said, trying not to let the nerves come out in her voice. She had yet to actually attack Kakashi, and she was not looking forward to it. Sasuke and Naruto nodded at her.

In the clearing, Kakashi heard it before he saw it, a wave of clones coming his way. It was the blond kid again, this time, he multiplied himself by at least forty. And they were all barreling toward him, screaming as hard as they could. Kakashi jumped as the first wave of them hit, fighting them off just as easily had he had before, each one making a satisfying poof as he knocked them off. This was easy. But then from above, on either side of him, came the other boy and girl, throwing shuriken his way.

He managed to throw two of the blond kid’s clones above him, the shuriken catching them in the stomachs as they turn into smoke. But the other girl and boy are on him again, just as the second wave of clones come in.

Attacking by brute force alone is good, Kakashi thought, but not anything he can’t handle. With a few more jabs and throws of some ninja stars, all the clones are gone, including the dark-haired boy and pink-haired girl, who must have been clones too. Across from him, the three kids stood, these ones real, he assumed.

“A full force attack, sometimes effective, but not very clever,” he said, reaching down for his copy of Icha Icha Paradise, which he had sat down before the clones reached him. And then, just as he grabbed it, he felt a quick pull, a rush as his body was lifted into a net, pulling him out.

Those kids had just been distracting him, setting a trap. Kakashi smiled to himself now, and took out of a knife, breaking the net before it even had a full hold of them. He leapt behind all three of ninja in a quick second. 

“A trap, even more clever,” he said, expecting them to be shocked at his sudden escape. But instead, they start to crumble, falling like leaves in front of him. Hmm, a gentjustu. A weak one, but a genjutsu nonetheless.

As soon as the genjutsu crumbled, he heard them. The dark-haired boy in front of him, his hands making another cast for a fire style jutsu. The blonde-haired boy behind him, with a few clones. And the girl, running toward his side, shuriken in hand.

It’s time to get this over with, Kakashi though. He jumped in the air, and in quick succession, dodged a fireball and threw out some kunai and wires. The kunais do their work, hitting the blond boys’ clones. And the wires do their work too, twisting around the hands of each of the kids, knocking them to the ground.

Kakashi landed in front of them, each of them knocked over, their hands and wrists bound by the clear wire. They were all panting, covered in dust and sweat. They must have depleted all of their chakra for this attack. Above them, the sun took its place high in the center of the sky – it’s noon.

“Not bad,” Kakashi said with a smile, “Not bad at all. But it is noon, and no one has a bell.”

“Well go ahead and send us back to the academy, I don’t care!” the blonde one said, biting at the wires around his wrist.

“You gave us an impossible task, if that means we have to train more, than we train more,” the girl said, sitting up as best as she could.

“I’ll find some other way to set out what I need to do,” the dark-haired boy said bitterly, letting out a sigh of frustration.

Kakashi was impressed. At the start of the day, he didn’t think they would’ve had it in them. They did what no team he had tested before had done before – they had worked together. And while they didn’t get the bells, Kakashi never expected them too. He had wanted this. Had wanted him to pay attention and work together. They had surprised him too, pulling all the same moves on him that he had pulled on them that day, the genjutsu, the trap, the strategy. This would be it. This would be the first genin team he would actually take on.

“Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto,” he said, speaking their names for the first time. They had all finally earned them, “You all pass.”

They all looked at him in shock.

“You proved that you could work as a team, that’s all I needed to see,” Kakashi said, “now, let’s get to you out of those wires and get you some lunch.”

As Kakashi freed them from the wires and explained more to them, about the point of the test, about how Jounin set up their own tests of teamwork for genin, he felt a deep stirring in his chest. Like this team was something that was always meant for him.

Fate and Chance looked down on them. It was not often that they worked together, so hand in hand. Usually reality only required that one of them to weave and turn and pull a situation. But sometimes, on rare occasion, it requires more forces than anyone could imagine.

Team 7 was a product of both Fate and Chance, and those would become the defining forces behind the rest of their time together. Pay attention and you’ll see.

* * *

You see, for ninja, teamwork meant everything. It was the difference between life or death. Only these three teams learned that lesson this day, with all other teams being sent back to the academy for remedial studies. All nine students from Iruka’s class. Not only had they all graduated, but they all made it through their Jounin’s tests. As far as anyone in the Leaf Village knew, never had the same nine ninja from the same class meet successes in becoming a genin like this. Truly, they were the Rookie Nine now.

When history happens, even the small, seemingly unimportant history like this, we rarely think about what made it happen. Or, if we do, we contribute it to ourselves, our acts and reactions and hard work. Humans are little egotistical in that way. They never think about the forces that drive them.

What of Chance and Fate? Their teamwork must count for something too. A new pattern was emerging on the tapestry of reality, a faint line marking the start of something larger to come.


	5. (Between) The Birth of a Village

The history of how the Leaf Village came to be is long, messy, and complicated. The friendship that gave birth to it even longer, messier, and endlesslys complex. The Leaf Village became within the _Between_ , long after _Before_ , but like history to _Here_. Our story exists in all these places and times, but some parts, some friendships, matter more than others.

Hashirama Senju would listen to the stories his family told, about humans who always fought, long before there were ninja and they probably would, long after still. Hashirama was exhausted of fighting, twelve years old and already, he had so much blood on his hands.

Madara Uchiha would listen to the stories his family told, about humans who were always reckless and petty, abusing their ninja and non-ninja powers. Madara was tired of the abuse, twelve years old and already, death in his eyes.

There are three rules you needed to know to survive the Warring States Period. One, ninjas would always fight for whoever was the highest bidder. Two, the strongest ninja clans are the Senju and Uchiha. And three, never let anyone know your clan name.

Both boys knew the rules. Both boys, eventually, broke them.

* * *

Madara Uchiha was skipping rocks. He wasn’t particularly good at it, his aim too high or low, the speed too quick or slow. The rocks would jump, once, twice, and then sink in the water with a defiant splash. After his third attempt sank after one jump, he threw the remaining stones in his hand toward the water with huff.

“Ridiculous,” he said to himself. Madara was strong and intelligent. He had precise chakra control, unparalleled instincts. He could kill a man twice his age, and had, quite a few times already. But he couldn’t throw a stupid rock.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a rock flew beside him and hit the water, moving smoothly across the whole river in eight jumps. A voice followed it, “You’re picking the wrong types of rock.”

Madara jumped back, pulling out a kunai and taking a fighting stance. In front of him was a kid probably no older than himself, he looked innocent enough. But Madara hadn’t heard him approach, hadn’t even detected he was there until the rock had passed him. Whoever he was, he had to be a ninja to move that quietly, to get past Madara’s heightened senses.

“Who are you?” Madara yelled, readying himself for an attack.

The other boy didn’t mimic his fighting stance, instead he just looked at Madara with a bemused look and held up a stone, “You have to get one that’s smooth and flat, like this, you see.”

Madara could feel his heart pounding, the way it always did right before a fight. He couldn’t understand why this kid wasn’t attacking.

“And when you throw it, it’s more about your wrist and not your arm, you flick it like this,” he said, flicking the stone out of his hand. It flew across the river in eight jumps just like the previous one. The kid let out a bright smile.

Madara eased his shoulders for a moment, but still remained alert. Obviously, this guy wasn’t going to attack up front, but he still could be a threat, “I don’t care about stones, I asked who you are?”

The kid gave him a strange look, something that made Madara’s gut feel heavy, something that looked like vulnerability. But then the look changed, became a tight smirk, “We both know that you’re not supposed to let other ninja know who you are. First names, maybe, but never clan names.”

“So you are a ninja?” Madara asked.

“You already knew that. I didn’t need to tell you,” the kid replied and gave Madara that look again. A softening of the features, a slight smile on the corner of his lips, eyes that didn’t look hard or ready for a fight, instead, eyes that looked relaxed, a little ready for fun. It was the same look Izuna would get on his face when they would sneak away from their father, play games and try to one up each other. It was a look that reminded Madara that he could be soft, that he could relax, too. This kid looked like fun.

He lowered his kunai, relaxed his shoulders. He knew it was a risk, but also knew that he could take him on if the situation turned sour. He was a Uchiha, after all, and their clan was the strongest.

“Well, if we’re sharing first names,” Madara said, stepping forward and reaching out a hand in greeting, “then I’m Madara, just Madara.”

The other kid broke out into a huge grin and grabbed his hand for a shake, “Well I’m Hashirama, just Hashirama.”

Hashirama was surprised that Madara had let his guard down. He looked like the type of intense fighter that Hashirama would meet a lot of the battlefield, like someone who never relaxed, like someone whose entire world was fighting. Then again, Hashirama wasn’t young or naive enough to pretend that this wasn’t true, that, as ninja, they didn’t all live in a world where fighting was their only choice, their only reason. But sometimes Hashirama thought it was nice to take a break, to breathe, if just for a second. And for a moment, he had convinced this guy to breathe too.

“So you wanna learn how to skip stones, or do you wanna keep failing?” Hashirama asked, a fun challenge in his voice.

“Oh, you’re on,” Madara said smugly.

For a few hours, the boys did just that, one of them teaching the other how to look for perfectly smooth stones, how to flick his wrist with intention, how to celebrate when he succeeded. They didn’t talk a lot, beyond instructions or commentary on the stones. They both knew they couldn’t say more than that, couldn’t accidentally let any information slip out that would lead the other to understanding their true identity. It was a hesitant, barely there way of sharing each other’s time, but they were indeed, sharing their time.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Madara did it, skipped his stone clear across the river, while Hashirama’s only made it halfway.

“Yeah! I beat you,” Madara yelled, letting out a huge grin, practically jumping up and down at the joy of having mastered this. He was a perfectionist in all that he did, including skipping stones.

Hashirama gave him a smirk, “You sure I didn’t just let you?”

Madara’s face dropped, “You didn’t did you? Come on, let’s go again.”

Hashirama looked at him, buzzing from how serious Madara took this little competition. It was just like he had first heard Madara say, ridiculous. Silly, really, to get this worked up over skipping rocks. Hashirama laughed then, joy spilling out over him that he could have so much fun over such a silly thing.

“You got so serious man,” Hashirama said, still laughing, “It’s okay, I didn’t let you win, you got me, fair and square.”

“Hmm,” Madara said, his own cocky laughter bubbling up from his stomach, “I knew that. I’m better than you now.”

Madara let himself fall into full on laughter then, not remembering the last time he had felt this joyful, not remembering the last time he felt like this, like a kid. Hashirama laughed too, feeling like the kid he rarely got to be. It struck him that this felt better than anything else in his laugh. That the strategizing, the hiding, the fighting – none of it ever felt right. It was obligation more than anything. But this moment, a moment of laughter and joy, of being a kid for the first time in a long time – it was exactly right.

* * *

They never agreed on anything when they left that day, but without even needing to say it, they knew they would meet again. And they did, whenever they had down time, they wondered near the river where they had first met. They never stayed together for long, just an hour of so here and there. Sometimes they skipped rocks, other times they invented new games to play, new ways they could work to one up each other.

To Madara’s displeasure, Hashirama ended winning most of their games. Hashirama never seemed to take it as seriously as Madara, always seemed relaxed and at ease in a way that Madara couldn’t feel, but yet he almost always won. Sometimes Madara let it bother him, but most of the time, he let its motivate him.

Eventually, they started letting more through the cracks too. Little tidbits here and there about their lives. They never revealed their clan names, but they both learned they had brothers, some still alive and some dead. They both learned they had harsh and demanding fathers, both learned that they felt the pressure to perform, constantly. They both learned that they had killed a lot of people, some of them kids, some of them adults, and that neither of them was good at thinking about that too much, that they wanted to wash the blood on their hands away as much as they could.

They also understood, implicitly, from observations of their own skills and the small stories they shared, that they were both from extremely strong clans. Madara suspected that Hashirama was part of the Senju clan, whose men he had killed more times than he would care to count. Hashirama suspected that Madara was from the Uchiha clan, whose cruel acclaim made them the object of hate for everyone in the Senju clan. But neither of the boys spoke these suspicions aloud, never said anything that would even hint at them. They knew that as long as it remained unsaid, they could remain friends.

* * *

They met like this for a few years, some days happy, some days dark, fresh off a battle and with family members lost. It was on one of these days that Hashirama first spoke an idea into existence. Something was finally clicking inside of him, finally making sense. Maybe it was Fate, that he spoke these ideas aloud to Madara first.

“Wouldn’t it be great,” he said, “if we didn’t have to fight?”

“What do mean by that, ninja have and will always fight each other,” Madara said, though the idea appealed to him.

“I know, I know. But what if ninja fought for something that actually mattered,” Hashirama began, his face lighting up. Everything was making sense and it was suddenly pouring out of him, “I mean, think about it, we’re basically glorified assassins for whoever can cough up the most dough. We’re constantly stealing, hurting, and blaming each other for everything wrong in the world. All of us, kids, teens, adults, and anyone in between, it’s all just senseless violence, it doesn’t make sense.”

Madara was intrigued, his own thoughts, the ones he was too scared to say aloud, echoing everything Hashirama said, “Well, what would make sense to you then?”

“Ninja who fought for peace,” Hashirama said.

Madara gave him a perplexed look, but he had to admit, something was clicking for him too, like strands of a fabric coming together to make something new.

“I know, that sounds weird,” Hashirama said, seeing Madara’s face, “But think about everything that we can do. Ninja are blessed with talents and power unlike any other, but we’re just using that power to destroy each other? What if there was a place where ninja could use their strengths for good? Where they could protect people, where they could rebuild things, where we could be a service, instead of a detriment, to the world?”

Hashirama was standing now, a gleaming look in his eyes, a hint of a smile on his face. There was a comforting warmth building in his stomach, the images of ninja who did good passing through his head.

Madara saw it too, this place Hashirama imagined, felt the same comforting warmth.

“You’re right, we could be doing so much more, especially if we worked together,” Madara said, “And in this place, clans could work together, couldn’t they? Instead of fighting each other.”

“Exactly!” Hashirama shouted, jumping up and down. “It would be a place that would unite multiple clans.”

“Clans could come together with their strengths and weaknesses, teaming together to find ways to complement each other, to be stronger together,” Madara said. He was standing now too, a thrill of hope running through him, a hope he had never let himself feel.

“Yes, and there would be different rankings for different types of ninja. Stronger ninja would handle the more difficult tasks, and less-skilled ninja could handle easier things. That way no one ninja has to feel the weight of something more they could handle, that the work, whatever it was, was fairly distributed,” Hashirama replied, imagining, already, the different ways he would rank his family members, the way tasks and missions and everything else would be designed to teach and protect those who were younger.

“That sounds great,” Madara said, picturing too, all the different variations of ninja rankings, “by doing that, we’d protect the weaker ninja, we’d make sure everyone gets a fair chance.”

Hashirama let out a sharp breath, realizing that Madara knew exactly how he felt, but also realizing that even if they made this dream a reality, it wouldn’t help Kawarama, it was too late for him. Madara noticed Hashirama’s sudden change in mood, noticed the way the boy suddenly sat down and looked darkly out at the sky.

“What’s wrong?”

“Another one of my brothers died a few days ago,” Hashirama said softly, “He was only seven years old.”

Madara didn’t know what to say for a second, because he knew exactly what Hashirama was talking about. A few days ago, a few members of his clan and the Hagoromo clan had gotten in a brawl with some of the members of the Senju clan. He had heard there was only one casualty, a seven-year-old boy from the Senju clan, who was strong, but not strong enough to fight two different clans at the same time. Hashirama had accidentally revealed himself, and it was what Madara had always expected, that he was Senju. The clan that his family hated more than anything, the clan that had taken countless lives from him, the clan that his family had laughed at the other day, recalling the frightened look on the young boy’s face right before they killed him. Madara knew he should hate Hashirama now, that, if he really were a Uchiha, he would kill him right here. But Madara didn’t think about that, all he wanted to do was comfort his friend.

He sat down beside Hashirama, “That wouldn’t happen in this place. We wouldn’t let kids fight, at least not until they were old enough, like our age or something. But even then, we’d make sure they were protected, they could fight, but they would need someone else with them, a more experienced ninja, someone who would protect them.”

Hashirama was surprised by Madara’s response, surprised that his friend, who so often drifted toward being glum and grumpy, was the one still speaking with hope in his voice, was the one encouraging him. It’s like their roles were reversed. And Madara was right, this place, wherever it was, would be a place that was designed to protect its weakest members.

“That’s exactly what the place would need,” Hashirama said, brightening up again. Madara smiled at that.

Then, Hashirama felt it again, the same clicking and pull that he had felt before. He couldn’t help Kawarama, but he could help others. This didn’t have to stay a dream, didn’t have to stay his reality. He just had to get stronger, and with Madara on his side…

“We could do this, you know, stop the fighting, and create this place,” Hashirama said, a smile returning to his voice, “We could do it right here, it would be a perfect place.”

He gestured toward the valley in front of him. The two boys were sitting on top of a cliff, not far from the river where they usually met. They had just challenged each other to a race to the top and then nearly stumbled down a sudden cliff face. There was a huge valley below, lush and green, and hidden. It was the perfect place to build this secret, special place where ninjas of all types could come together.

Madara looked out the valley and for a second, he could swear he could see it, the dreams of their place a reality. But it would take a lot more work than just imagining to get there.

“We’d need to be a lot stronger than we are now, to convince anyone to listen to us, to stop them if they try to fight back,” Madara said, trying to think rationally, about what needed to be done to make this possible. His father, of course, would be the most impossible one to convince.

Hashirama thought about his father too, about how no amount of convincing would work, how it would have to come down to a fight. “Well obviously, but that’s how we can help each other, right? We can keep challenging and training each other, we can make each other stronger.”

Madara liked the idea, like the idea of finally one upping Hashirama, “That works.”

“Let’s promise then,” Hashirama said, holding out his hand, “let’s promise to make this place possible.”

Madara reached out his own hand, grabbed Hashirama’s, and gave it a firm handshake. Both boys felt something in that handshake, something deeper and more complex than their young minds could yet describe. They couldn’t see it, of course, but there were deep red strands wrapping around their clutched hands, strong, irreversible, ties of Fate. It didn’t matter that their handshake lasted only a moment, that eventually, they let go. Those strands would remain with them until their dying days.

For a moment after, Madara considered telling Hashirama what he knew, considered telling him that he knew he was Senju, that he himself was Uchiha, that if they were going to make this dream a reality, they would need to deal with all of that, the years of hatred, the Curse of Uchiha, the strength of both those clans. But Madara didn’t say anything. For now, the old rules won out.

* * *

The story gets more complex here, its stitches woven into another pattern that comes later. But here’s the highlight reel. The families of both boys found out, they both asked them to act as spies, they both failed. One boy decided to walk away, decided that their time together, their dreams of a place where ninja could come together, and their friendship was all a pipe dream. Decided it would be easier, when it came time to kill Hashirama, to not be his friend. One boy decided that even though the other walked away, that he would still be his friend, that every time they met on the battle field, he would hesitate, just for a moment, because Madara would always be his friend.

Eventually, the old rules would fall away, they would disintegrate them with another handshake, ten years after their last. The Warring States period would be over, the age of hidden ninja villages would begin.

There was a lot that went into making a Hidden Village, busywork that I won’t take time to describe. But the most important part came in filling it with ninja. As a precaution, Hashirama and Madara decided they would meet with all the ninja who wanted to join their village, turning away any who seemed devious and welcoming any of those who seemed ready to embrace something new. Most clans sent a representative, vying for a spot for the full clan. Other ninjas came in groups, all from different clans and families who had already started working together, didn’t mind showing the others the ropes when it came to teamwork, but the woman who stood in front of them now showed up alone.

She was tall and beautiful, red-haired and pale. Her eyes were dark and intense, with a calm confidence that made both Hashirama and Madara antsy. And there was something else about this woman too, a strange sort of heaviness that fell in the room when she walked in, something like power, but a power that couldn’t be detected. But it didn’t scare either man away from noticing how beautiful she was.

“And what did you say your name was again?” Hashirama asked. He hadn’t heard it the first time, he had been too taken by her presence.

“Mito Uzumaki,” she said calmly.

“Oh, I know you. I mean, I don’t know you specifically,” Hashirama said with an awkward chuckle, “But our clans, they worked together sometimes.”

Mito gave a cool nod in response. Madara was enjoying watching his friend stumble over himself a little bit. Battlefields didn’t leave much room for impressing women, and Hashirama couldn’t be best at everything. He would show him how it was done.

“Aren’t the Uzumaki’s making their own village, in the Land of Whirlpools, I heard” Madara said. He paid attention a little bit more than Hashirama did, knew they were starting a trend that was spreading across the world.

“Yes, they are, but I’d rather be a member of, what are you calling it, the Hidden Leaf Village,” Mito said.

“And why is that?” Hashirama asked, interested in her answer, interested in anything to learn more about her, if he was honest.

“Let’s just say,” Mito said slowly, like she was choosing her words carefully, “that we had a few disagreements about how they plan on allocating their power. I like the plan you two have devised much better.”

Madara and Hashirama both smirked at that, happy to take a compliment from a beautiful woman who seemed to take interest in their ideals. And then, they both felt it again, a strange pulse of power. They couldn’t tell what it was or why they were feeling it, but they could tell that whatever it was, its origin was Mito. This only interested the two men more.

They talked to Mito Uzumaki a little bit longer, asking about her ninja skills, if there were any clan grudges that might bring potential unrest to the village, would she be willing to go through initial exams to test her skills for appropriate ranking, and all the other questions they were using to vet potential ninjas of the Hidden Leaf Village. Hashirama kept stumbling over his words, Madara kept trying to be impressive, and Mito seem unaffected by any of these things.

By the time the interview was over, by the time they extended a warm welcome, both Madara and Hashirama were smitten. They looked at each other with sly grins as Mito walked out. Just as the Hidden Leaf Village was born, so was a new challenge for old friends. 

* * *

Of course, this isn’t the full story, these are just the clearest, most important strands. Madara and Hashirama had brothers and families and histories and romances that this story will eventually explore. Mito is part of that too, part of all of it, and more important to their friendship than either would realize. The story of their friendship is vast, it still goes on.

For now, though, it is important to know that this is how the Leaf Village came to be. Birthed out of wars and fighting and rivalry and friendships. This became its genes, the very essence of the Leaf Village. The will of fire that would be in the DNA of all ninja lucky enough to be born insides its gates. That connection isn’t undone so easily. And this history is what matters to our story.


	6. (Here) The Lost Girls of Nagi Island

All ninjas remember their first mission. Well, not their actual first mission because usually the first mission is something small and easy, tasks that keep them safe and in the village. No, I’m talking about the first time they feel like a ninja, the first mission that is just a little too hard, a little too risky, a little too much. It’s a mission that they’ll survive, of course, for how else could they remember it? But part of them doesn’t survive, part of them is forever changed, realizing, perhaps for the first time, the true stakes of the life they have chosen. Not all ninjas can handle it, and sometimes, after that first real mission, they leave shinobi lifestyle behind. And other times, the emerge braver than they were before.

This is what happened to Hinata Hyuga, on her first real mission.

Team 8’s first mission was a tracking mission. One that took them out of Konoha, across a scrawling sea, and moving throughout a mysterious island. Sent to retrieve a lost girl, but really, they would find so much more.

* * *

Kiba Inuzuka was excited, gearing up for his first real mission, ready to get away from Konoha. Akamaru was just as excited, yipping with excitement as he jumped into Kiba’s hood. Kiba was just about to head out when he felt a rough pull on the straps of his pack, holding him back from running out the door.

“And where do you think you’re going,” Tsume said, refusing to release her grip on her son even as he struggled.

“Come one Mom,” Kiba said, letting his arms go slack, “I’m gonna be late, Instructor Kurenai said we needed to meet her by 8am exactly or she’d leave us behind.”

“Well you wouldn’t be late if you had actually got up when I woke you up at dawn,” Tsume said with a slight growl in her voice.

“Yeah, well I’m gonna be late if you keep holding me back,” Kiba said, pulling his backpack out of her hands with a harsh jerk. Tsume let out a nervous laugh then, her son as equally excited about going on his first off-Village mission as she was anxious about it.

“I won’t hold you back anymore kid,” she said, a softness in her voice that Kiba hardly ever heard, “I just wanted to say good luck. Don’t let your temper get the best of you and listen to Kurenai.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know all of that,” Kiba said, shifting his backpack securely over his back again and turning toward the door.

“Did I say you could go?” Tsume said harshly, her voice suddenly returning to its normal tenor.

“What?” Kiba practically yelled, turning around.

“I’m proud of you,” Tsume said, reaching out to pat Kiba and Akamaru’s head.

“Ughh, Mom, don’t be weird,” Kiba said, but a smile was spreading across his face. It felt good for his mom to be nice instead of her usual harshness, good that she was happy to see him off on a mission so big. “But I really gotta go now.”

“I know, I know, get outta here,” Tsume said. Kiba gave a last wave and dashed off, his mother’s pride following him the whole way.

Meanwhile, Shino Aburame was sitting at a table with his father, Shibi, both in silence. Shino glanced up at the clock, noticed how close it was to 8am.

“Well, I should be heading out now,” Shino said, nodding at the time.

Shibi nodded in agreement. As Shino gathered his things, he looked at his son. Their resemblance was so striking that Shibi sometimes felt like he was looking in a mirror when starting at his son, a much younger, much more alive reflection of himself. He knew Shino was strong, knew that he would succeed in whatever task this mission put in front of him. And watching him prepare for his first off-Village mission, he was more confident in Shino’s abilities than ever.

He grabbed Shino’s glasses before he could grab them himself and in a rare act of physical touch, put them over Shino’s eyes, “You’ll do good son.”

Shino nodded to that, knowing what Shibi was really saying, that he believed in him, that he was confident in his skills, and that he was happy to have him as a son. Neither Shino nor Shibi were men of many words, and because of this, they knew how to communicate a lot by saying very little.

As Shino walked out the door, he felt the goodbye strung in the air in the way his father looked at him, in the way he felt more confident in his steps as he left.

Far on the other side of the village, Hinata was standing outside her father’s door. She was packed and ready to go, had been for a while now, and had spent most of the morning nervously staring at this same door.

But she hardly had enough time now, she had to say goodbye. She lightly rapped on the door but heard no response. She tried again, still no response. She bit her lip, nervous that another knock would annoy him even more.

She knew he was in his room, knew that he was giving her the cold shoulder. It was a common tactic he used, ignoring her for days on end whenever she disappointed him. This past weekend at training, Hanabi had gotten the best of Hinata…again.

He father hadn’t said anything, didn’t berate her like he usually did. Instead he looked at her with cold disappointment and hadn’t spoken to her since. Hinata was used to this silence, used to feeling invisible, used to knowing that she had to make herself worthy of his attention before she could get it. Hinata had thought that the news of the mission would make him warm up to her again, but he had not responded when she told him and the rest of the family the previous night. And now she was leaving, for a mission without a specific end date. She at least wanted to see him, one last time, before she left.

“Father,” she said, her voice small but loud enough to be heard through the thin paper of the sliding door, “I’m going to be leaving for my mission now, I just wanted to say goodbye.”

Hiashi heard Hinata but kept staring out the window opposite the door. He heard her shuffling her feet, heard her deep sigh, and then finally, the movement as she walked away. Of course, he thought, she would give up so easily.

Hiashi’s relationship with his daughter was complex and fraught with expectation and memory and disappointment and yes, love, but a hard, strange love. He couldn’t stand looking at her sometimes, could sense how weak she was from the dim light of her gaze. How much they were like Kayda’s eyes, how much they were not. His daughter needed to be stronger, she needed to have more grit. Maybe this mission would help her do that.

Outside, Hinata took one last glance at her home, the heavy pit of her father’s silence and anger and disappoint rolling in her stomach, where it always lay, slowly carving into everything she could be.

Parental affection was a game of Chance, shaped by generations of parents before them, everything that happened in individual lives, and the course of emotion through a person’s soul. Hinata Hyuga had been played a bad hand. She wasn’t the only one, and she would never be the only one.

* * *

A few days later, Hinata looked down at the water ahead of her. As far as she could see, even with her Byakugan, there was water. Like most young ninja, Hinata had never really left the village she had been born in. To see the sudden vastness of the world both terrified and thrilled her.

“I can’t believe it’s so vast, it feels like we’re never going to make it Nagi Island,” Hinata said, looking at her teammates.

“We’re still about 1200 miles away from the island. If we continue at this same speed, we should reach the island in about 40 hours,” Shino said in his matter of a fact way.

“Ughhh,” Kiba groaned, grabbing his stomach, “I don’t think I can handle forty more hours of this.”

Both Kiba and Akamaru were having a bout of sea sickness, whimpering and slumping on the boat deck. Hinata sat down beside them, patting both of their heads, “It will go by faster than you think.”

“Do you think that she’ll still be there when we get there?” Shino asked, thinking about the three days they had already traveled by foot, calculating the potential of the way news traveled, the way they had heard from the source and been deployed four days earlier, how the intel would be two weeks old by the time they reached Nagi Island.

“Our sources told us it looked like she had made camp, like she had been there for weeks. It’s not likely that she was going to move anytime soon,” Kurenai assured Shino. “Come on Kiba, one of the boatmen says he has some medicine.”

Kiba and Akamaru followed along after Kurenai, Hinata looked back at the water spread out before them, and Shino sighed deeply, inhaling the sea air. At first, Hinata had been unsure of being paired up Kiba and Shino, who, during their time at the academy, had seemed either too abrasive or too stoic. But over the past few months, doing small, simple missions throughout the village, she had come to see different sides of them. Shino was blunt and serious, but sometimes would crack the cleverest of straightforward jokes. Kiba babbled a lot, but when you really paid attention to what he was saying – talking about his love for Akamaru, his family, or life in general – it was charming, not abrasive. And both of her teammates, she noticed, were secretly kind, trying to make her smile on her gloomier days or complimenting her during training. Like Hinata, both the boys had been worried about their assigned teammates too. Shino had the early impression that Kiba was an idiot but realized the Kiba was actually really smart and an excellent trainer, Akamaru and him always in synch. Conversely, Kiba had thought Shino was a stick in a mud, but soon found out that Shino was actually a calm and collecting presence when things got sticky. Both boys had been surprised to be paired with Hinata, who, to them, had always seemed shy and gloomy. But within a few weeks, they realized how kind and funny Hinata could be when they got her to open up, and they found that more and more, in their own ways, they could get her to smile, laugh, or go red with blush. They liked doing this quite a lot.

After Kurenai settled Kiba and Akamaru into bed with the medicine, she stopped outside the doors of their unwanted guests. Behind the door, she had heard them whispering but couldn’t make out anything tangible. She let out a sigh and moved on, telling herself that she was probably paranoid. But this was an important mission for her students, their first time outside of the village and their first C-rank mission. Kurenai was surprised this was even considered a C-rank mission.

* * *

“I promise you, Kurenai, your team can handle this mission, they’ve been showing good promise, and it’s good to start off tracking ninja as early as we can,” the Hokage had told her just a few days earlier.

She and her students had been summoned to Hiruzen’s office. She had gone in first, her students were waiting outside. Hiruzen wanted to give her a briefing on the mission first, a run-down of what information she could and could not share with them.

“Are you absolutely sure there’s no risk, that there’s no way we will encounter him?” Kurenai asked, needing the assurance more than once.

“I’m sure. All reports of Eri Nomura have her pegged as traveling alone. No signs of Itachi Uchiha. His trail has been cold a long time, believe me, he has been the Anbu’s top priority for years. Eri is alone and totally manageable, she’s not even a ninja. We’re looking for her because we need to find him, not the other way around” Hiruzen explained.

“I believe you, I just…I just don’t want you sending my students on a mission they potentially can’t handle,” Kurenai said. She had never met Itachi Uchiha, but the Uchiha Massacre a few years earlier had wrecked the Leaf Village. And like most dark deeds that happened in the village, it too, was a secret that they tried to keep from young ninjas. No sense scarring the new generation with the past generation’s mistakes.

“You’re their teacher, you should believe in them more than I do.”

Kurenai let out a sigh. He was right, “I do believe in them.”

“Good, then it’s settled. Team 8 will travel to Nagi Island, where there have been multiple reports of Eri Nomura, a non-ninja villager who went missing on the same night of the Uchiha Massacre. Because she’s not a ninja, she can’t be classified as a missing nin, and therefore, we cannot force her to return to the village. But it is critical that she return, that you convince her, as she may have valuable information about what exactly motivated Itachi Uchiha in killing his own clan,” Hiruzen said, an official tone in his voice.

“Yes,” Kurenai answered, confirming that she understood. “And my students aren’t to know about her affiliations with Itachi. They think we’re just looking for Eri because her father wants her to return.”

“Yes, which is true enough. He may be an angry drunk, but he’s still cogent enough to send in requests to my office every few months about his daughter.”

Though she had never known Eri, Kurenai knew exactly who Ito Nomura was, a local drunk who could frequently been seen starting brawls in local bars and shops, with ninja and non-ninja alike. He seemed like nothing more than a violent man who liked violence for violence sake.

“Have you ever thought,” Kurenai started, “That Eri leaving on the night of the Uchiha Massacre was all a coincidence?”

“I think a lot of things Kurenai,” Hiruzen said with a sigh, “but it’s not our job to answer questions like that. It’s our job to do our duty to the village, and right now that means bringing Eri back.”

* * *

The first part of the mission – the travel to Nagi Island, had gone smoothly on foot, but they had encountered a problem once they reached the boat. Hiruzen had arranged for safe passage to Nagi Island on a small passenger boat, meant to be quick and private. But the captain had double-booked passage with a young couple staying in the room across from Team 8.

No one on Team 8 got a good feeling about the couple. Even though neither of them had claimed to be ninja, Kurenai noticed how healthy and fit they look, how their bodies had muscles that saw a lot of training. Shino had noticed the giant truck the guy had dragged into the boat’s storage, heard a clanging of metal inside of it, likely a weapon of immense size. Kiba and Akamaru had noticed a potent smell coming from the guy that no one else had noticed, like he was made of rotten flesh. And Hinata had noticed the bruises that wrapped themselves around the girl’s arms, the way she flinched lightly each time the guy moved too fast. They were a strange, suspicious pair.

The guy was named Hidan, the girl named Kin. They looked at if they had been traveling together for a long time. While they were suspicious, neither of them had bothered Team 8 throughout the trip and when the boat finally made port in Nagi Island, the couple disappeared without a word.

“Okay, we’ll begin with the southeast corner of the island. Kiba, you and Akamaru should head into town and see if you can any scent trails that follow from town to the cliffs. Shino, hang out by the ports and use your bugs to spy on the boatmen, see if any of them have brought a young woman over to the island a few weeks ago. Hinata, you and I will search the forest, using your Byakugan to cover a large range, got it?”

“Yes Kurenai,” all three said in unison.

“And remember, if you find her, you’re not to use force. Eri isn’t a ninja and she isn’t considered dangerous. If you find her, you’re just going to ask her to have a conversation with me. We’ll meet back here and find a place to make camp in approximately four hours,” Kurenai explained. And with that, they were off, each of them tracking in their own way.

* * *

On the southwest side of the island, many miles from Team 8, Eri Nomura was packing her camp. She had gotten good at this and could take down camp in mere minutes. She needed to be quick right now, needed to move around as much as she could, needed to sneak down to the docks to see if there were any boats or ships that were willing to take her off this island. But the docks were exactly the place she was avoiding if she wanted a chance to survive. Afterall, there were ninja after her.

Eri was not a ninja herself but Itachi had taught her all the tricks she needed to stay in hiding. How to cover her tracks and scents, how to remain innocuous when making trips to town, how to never stay in any place for long unless she found some sort of protection. But despite all of this, Eri had still been reckless. Had still taken a risk that she knew would only cause her trouble.

But the risk had been worth it, just to see the look on the women’s and children’s faces.

Just as she was finished packing up, she heard them, sudden shouts and laughter pealing through the woods, “We found the bitch!”

“Oh fuck,” she said to herself and then broke into a run. The hoots behind her got louder as they heard her scurry to leave, excited for the chase.

Eri had been running for four years now, and she was good at it. But fast from a non-ninja was slow to a ninja, and soon, they caught up to her, grabbing her by her long dark her and wrenching her hair backwards. There were three of them, big and burly men, no distinguishable markings from any hidden village on them, but you could tell they were ninja from the way their moved.

Eri struggled to break free from their grip, groaning as she clawed at the hand tight in her hair.

“Hmm, the boss didn’t tell me she was such a pretty little thing,” the one who held her said, yanking her face around so it faced the others, who let out ‘ahs’ of appreciation. Eri kicked and pulled, but it was no use, they were stronger than her. There was no way she could escape them, at least not here.

“Pretty or not, we better tie her up,” one of the others suggested, pulling out some rope. But just as he did, there was a hiss in the air, a whip as something spinning and sharp bit through the rope. Before the men even have time to be surprised, three more zings rush through the air, shuriken, Eri realizes, connecting with their necks.

Blood poured for their necks and one by one, they dropped to the ground.

“Sorry for the mess,” a woman said, jumping down in front of Eri suddenly. She reached out a hand, her arm covered in bruises, “I’m Kin.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Team 8 could find nothing. Kurenai and Hinata covered at least 50 miles worth of forest and found no sign of anyone staying in the wood. Kiba and Akamaru didn’t catch a single scent. But Shino had heard something interesting.

“Nagi Island isn’t a ninja island, is it?” he questioned, when Kurenai asked him for his report.

“No, though ninja can travel to, from, and through it,” she answered.

“I think there are ninja who live here, in a warehouse near the docks,” Shino explained.

“What does this have to do with Eri,” Kiba said, annoyed by the slow, overly analytical ways that Shino tended to explain things.

“Kiba, I sure he wouldn’t be sharing this if it wasn’t relevant,” Kurenai said, having learned that Shino was the most apt when it came to details, especially the tinier, smaller details that the other two tended to not notice. It was likely a bug thing, “Shino, tell us everything.”

“The beetles alerted me to suspicious activity at the warehouse near the docks. I went there and saw a group of men, outfitted with ninja gear but no identifying headbands, discussing some supplies that had been stolen from them. Stolen by a woman they said, one who just got to the island a few weeks ago,” Shino explained in a matter of fact tone.

“And you think this woman may by Eri?” Hinata asked, intent on taking in as much intel as she could.

“It’s a stretch that it’s Eri, but the timeline lines up exactly with our intel,” Shino explained.

“That’s a good hunch, follow up on it tomorrow,” Kurenai said, “Is there anything else?”

“They sent a few of the stronger looking ninja after her. The woman, whether its Eri or not, is in danger. But that’s only relevant to us if the woman is Eri,” Shino said.

Sometimes, Kurenai appreciated how straight forward Shino was in approaching missions, it gave him an advantageous razor focus. Other times, she wanted to shake him because of how unempathetic it made him sound.

“No, it’s still relevant to us,” Kurenai said, “If those ninjas had no village allegiances, and if they’re stationed at a location like Nagi Island, it means they’re likely rogue ninja hired by a mercenary. If we come across them, it would have to be a fight.”

“You mean,” Hinata asked softly, “that if we see any ninja after a woman, we should try to stop them?”

Kurenai nodded, “Whether that woman is Eri Nomura or not, as ninjas of the Hidden Leaf Village, we can’t let rogue ninja hurt a potentially innocent woman.”

“Ughh, now we have guard duty on top of tracking duty, this is going to take forever,” Kiba said with a groan, already exhausted with how unexciting his first mission was. 

“Don’t worry, it’s only our first day, and Nagi Island is big,” Kurenai told her students, “we have to practice patience. Tomorrow, we’ll start on the southwest.”

But after three days, no further information from Shino’s warehouse spying, and no sign of rogue ninja, they still hadn’t found Eri. Team 8 needed more than patience; they needed a little bit of Chance too. 

* * *

Hinata was walking through the woods, looking for a place to cool off and rest her eyes, her chakra depleted by how often she had been using her Byakugan. Ahead, she could hear the rustling of a stream, and she followed the noise, pausing when he heard a splash in the water.

A woman was sitting on the dock that pushed out into the stream, her shoes beside her, her feet splashing in the water. The woman had long dark hair, pale skin, freckles covering her cheeks and shoulders. Her eyes were large and hazel, reflecting the mixed green and brown of the forest around her. And there was a thin scar above her right eye, slitting through her eyebrow. Another scar across her chin, just hitting the bottom on her lip. She looked exactly like the picture of Eri Nomura that the Hokage had shown them before they left for Nagi Island, or at least, an older version of her.

“You’re back faster than I thou—” the woman said, turning at the sound of Hinata entering the clearing and pausing when she saw her, “You’re not who I expected.”

“Um, hello,” Hinata said, still not believing that after days of searching, she had accidentally stumbled upon Eri.

“Hi,” Eri said, pulling her feet from the water and standing up, her guard suddenly up “You’re from the Hidden Leaf Village, aren’t you?”

“Oh, how did you—”

“Headband,” Eri said, tapping her own bare forehead. “You ninja think you’re sneaky, but then at the same time, you wear a headband that announces your allegiance out and in the open. I never got it.”

“Well, we don’t always want to hide that we’re ninja,” Hinata said.

Eri shrugged her shoulders, “You wouldn’t happen to be hired by a thug to kill me, would you?”

“What, no.” Hinata said. So, Shino’s hunch was right, Eri was the woman who the ninjas were after.

“Yeah, you don’t look like the type, but I can never be too sure,” Eri said, relaxing again. Even if this tiny girl was sent to kill her, she could probably handle it. But she liked the girl’s eyes, they looked kind and a little sad, and she believed her.

“But I am looking for you,” Hinata said, “That is, if you’re Eri Nomura.”

Eri was taken back again. She hadn’t heard her full name for a while, hadn’t thought how it would feel like a sharp hit in her gut, “What makes you think I am?”

Hinata could tell that Eri was on edge but decided that the best way to convince her to talk to Kurenai was to be honest, “Well, you match the description, and our intel spotted you on this island, we’ve been looking for a few days now.”

Eri chucked to herself, “I’m really good at hiding.”

“I guess you are,” Hinata said, “We’re tracker ninja, finding people and things is what we’re supposed to be good at.”

“And why is the Leaf Village looking for me? I’m not a ninja, I don’t hold any village secrets, when and if I left the Leaf Village was up to my discretion,” Eri explained, something that had been sitting on the edge of her tongue since she left, waiting to explain how she had every right to leave. She had every right to stay away.

“We know that. Me and my teammates and our leader, we just want to talk to you. That’s why we were told to find you,” Hinata said. At least, that’s what Kurenai had told them, had told them that Eri’s father wanted her back in the Village, that if they found her, they were to bring her to Kurenai to explain. Hinata suspected it was something more, something Kurenai wasn’t telling them, but she certainly wasn’t going to share that with Eri.

“Just to talk?” Eri asked. Hinata nodded.

Eri bit her lip. Kin had been gone too long for comfort. She knew it was just a matter of time before more goons came after her. A whole team of ninjas was certainly better than just one. Besides, she and Kin already a plan in place, she had the spare time to see what these Leaf Village ninja wanted in the meantime.

* * *

The girl was too quiet as they walked back. Eri was used to silence, but this silence grated at her. It was something in her eyes, a soft sadness in the girl’s face as she led her forward. Eri didn’t like it, didn’t like how much it reminded her of herself.

“How old are you kid?” Eri asked. The girl looked impossibly young, but then again, Eri wasn’t that old herself, just nineteen years old, but she just felt it so much older.

“Um,” Hinata started, not understanding why Eri would ask this, “I’m twelve.”

Eri looked at the girl again, twelve years old and she already looked so stricken and small and scared. Just like Itachi had. Was it the Leaf Village, and their ninja training? Or with this girl, was it something else?

Hinata, worried by Eri’s silence, added, “My teammates are twelve too, we’re all genin. But our leader, she’s in her twenties, and she’s a Jounin. So, you’ll be safe, if that’s what you’re worried about. You do know what the ninja rankings are, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I know the ninja rankings. I did live in the Leaf Village for fifteen years, even if I’m not a ninja myself,” Eri said, with a small smile. Four ninjas, one of them a Jounin, that would be enough protection. She glanced back at the clearing where this girl had found her, wondering about Kin. She would be okay. She would have to be okay. And then, they would meet at midnight, just as planned.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to assume,” the girl said, her eyes downcast. Yeah, Eri decided, there was definitely something more than the usual ninja sadness about this girl. That was Eri called it in her head, the ninja sadness, that weird sort of heaviness that every ninja, at least the good ones, seemed to carry on their shoulders. But there was something more here.

“No need for apology,” Eri said with a reassuring smile, “What’s your name anyway?”

It had only just occurred to her that she was walking through the woods with a stranger, a ninja, whose name she didn’t know. It was risky. It was everything Itachi would have warned her against. But there was something about this girl that she implicitly trusted.

“Hinata Hyuga,” the girl said quietly, something sad catching when she said the surname.

“Well nice to meet you Hinata, even if I’m probably a dumb ass for trusting you,” Eri said, holding out a hand.

Hinata gripped her hand and gave it a soft shake, “You’re not dumb, you can trust me.”

“Yeah, strangely, I believe you,” Eri said.

Both girls smiled at each other before moving through the woods again.

Meanwhile, Kurenai was rethinking their plan. Maybe Shino was right, and their information had gone cold? They still had one more third of the island to cover, but it was a bit disheartening, to hear nothing past the ninja gossip on the first day. She wanted to succeed because she wanted her students to have a success, knew how much it would mean to them.

“Woah, Hinata” Kiba shouted, “you found her!”

Kurenai looked up and sure enough, moving through the woods was Hinata and a young woman that looked exactly their photos of Eri Nomura. Kurenai smiled in suprise, happy they had found her. But now came the hard part – convincing Eri to come back to Konoha.

“Hello, I’m Kurenai Yuhi,” Kurenai said as they approached. She gestured behind her, “That’s Kiba and Akamaru. And I see you’ve already met Hinata.”

“I did,” Eri said, “and she said you’ve been looking for me, that you wanted to speak to me.”

“Hinata, how’d you find her?” Kiba said, pulling Akamaru into his arms and walking over.

“Oh, I let my guard down, that’s why,” Eri said, knowing that was the reason. She was too good at making herself invisible otherwise. Kin had distracted her, had made her feel carefree and easy in a way she never had before.

“It was…I…it was just a bit of chance,” Hinata answered.

“Well I’m glad you did,” Kurenai said. “Kiba, go to the docks and get Shino back to camp. Hinata, can you set up the tents and start a fire?”

“Yes, Instructor Kurenai,” they both said and flew into action, Kiba running off and Hinata grabbing their supplies to set up a few feet away.

“Hmm, following orders, just like good little ninja always do,” Eri said, a slight bitterness in her voice.

“Can we talk?” Kurenai said, taking in Eri’s tone, leading her further away, so Hinata couldn’t overhear.

“If you tell me why the Leaf Village is looking for me, then yeah.”

Kurenai took a deep breath, decided to do this quickly, “The Leaf Village is looking for you because we’d like you to answer some questions about Itachi Uchiha. You disappeared on the same night as the Uchiha Massacre. We know about your relationship with him, and that even though you’re not with him now, you may know where he would be.”

As Kurenai spoke, Eri’s stomach twisted in knots, her heart started beating. Of course, it was about that night. She knew, somehow, that if traces of the Leaf Village ever found their way to her that it would be about that night. The night that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Kurenai looked at her, watched the way all the color drained from Eri’s face as she spoke, watched sweat start to bubble up on her skin. Kurenai had thought, perhaps naively so, that maybe Eri had nothing to do with it. But of course, she did. Nothing was coincidence in the ninja world.

“The Uchiha Massacre,” Eri said slowly, realizing then, the full extent of that phrasing. She had always thought that maybe it wasn’t everyone, that maybe she was wrong, that Itachi would have at least spared Sasuke, the younger brother he loved so much. But you don’t use the word massacre to describe survivors, “that’s what they’re calling it?”

Kurenai was curious then, maybe this girl didn’t actually know the full extent of what happened “Yes, it was awful. Even more awful, I imagine, for that young boy to find his family like that.”

“Sasuke is still alive?” Eri asked.

Kurenai nodded in response. Eri didn’t think about Sasuke much, the annoying younger brother that had followed her and Itachi around all the time. He was peripheral, on the edges of her vision. She had so much more she was dealing with. He was just a kid, and now, she realized, no older than that girl Hinata. Maybe surviving wasn’t the better deal. Eri felt the sinking pit in her stomach grow darker, grow deeper. This is exactly why she didn’t think about Sasuke or Itachi or her father or anything else she left behind in the Leaf Village. That part of her life was over, she didn’t need it anymore.

“I don’t know where Itachi is,” Eri said, her voice suddenly frantic. She wanted to escape, wanted to get away from this feeling and anything to do with the Leaf Village, “The last time I saw him was that night, right before, I didn’t know what he was going to do, I just wanted to leave and he told…told me with would be a good night to do so.”

Flashes of that night played in Eri’s mind. Itachi banging on her window, telling her to pack a bag, telling that tonight was her night, that she could get away from her father, that no one would come looking for her, he would make sure of it. And the goodbye, the goodbye like he wouldn’t see her again. But that she wanted her own chance at a goodbye, she wanted to ask him if he would come with her. She had found something else instead…

“That’s exactly the type of stuff we’d like to know,” Kurenai said, her voice calm and reassuring. She wanted to quell the sudden panic she could feel rising in the girl. She wanted to make sure that she got her back to the village. Even if she didn’t know where Itachi went, she might have seen what had happened. After all, there had been no witnesses, only the traumatic accounts of an eight-year old Sasuke Uchiha who had shown up after the fact. But any details about that night, no matter how small, could help them find Itachi. “Even if you don’t know where he’s at, it’s in the interest of the Leaf Village that we know as many details about that night as possible.”

Eri caught her breathe, told herself to calm down. Everything about that night rattled around inside of her like an angry machine. She knew it would help the Leaf Village, knew it could help find Itachi. But she didn’t know if she wanted Itachi to be found. Her feelings about that too hard to move through, now, in this moment with this ninja she didn’t even know. Besides, there was something bigger, something more that mattered to her than the Uchiha Massacre.

“Is my father still in the Leaf Village?” she asked, trying to make her voice calm and easy.

Kurenai could hear the coldness in Eri’s voice, sense the prickling of fear it held in its edges. Ninjas didn’t make speculations like that, Hiruzen had told her, but she saw now that what she had suspected was right, “Yes.”

“Then it’s a no,” Eri said, relieved that this could be her reason for rejecting them, not her mixed up feelings about Itachi, about what happened that night.

Kurenai let out a sigh, “That’s your choice. You’re not a missing ninja, and we can’t force you to return to the village as a non-ninja. But I could promise you that if you returned to the village, your father wouldn’t even know. You’d give us your intel and be free to go without him ever knowing otherwise.”

Eri thought through her answer before she said it. Rogue ninjas were after her, but she was alone. She couldn’t rely on Kin, as she had the last few days, couldn’t because Kin had a lot more to do to make their plans work. She was without protection for eight hours, at least, and here was a team of ninja, ready to protect her. She just had to convince them she was worth protecting, had to convince them that she was helping them fulfill their mission, if it was only for a little.

“Okay,” Eri said, the lie bubbling up on her tongue, “I’ll come back, but only if you keep that promise.” 

* * *

That night, Eri sat around the fire with four strangers, well five, if you counted the puppy too. She had watched them as they set up camp and prepared dinner together, listened as Hinata recounted meeting her, fudged a little bit of the truth when she said, once again, that she would return to the village with them. They all seemed happy to have her there, insisted they didn’t need help with the set up or cooking, seemed to have a perfect system worked out.

This was the one and only thing that made Eri jealous of ninjas, the team system. A system, from her perspective, that gave you a built-in family. People to care about and who cared about you. It wasn’t something Eri ever got enough of.

But finally, they were settled in, sitting together in a crackle of flames.

“So Hinata mentioned that you may be having trouble with some rogue ninja?” Kurenai asked, wondering about that detail.

“More or less,” Eri said.

“A few days ago, we gathered some info about some ninja who were after a woman, someone who may have stolen something from them. Would that be you?”

Eri sucked air between her teeth, decided it was better to be honest, well, as honest as she could be, “Yeah, that’s me. They’re not good guys, in case you’re wondering. I was just taking back from what they had stolen from others. That was a week ago. I’ve been moving around the island since, camping in different places, covering my tracks, never staying in any place for more than a few hours nap.”

Kurenai nodded, deciding not to pry into non-essential details, “That would explain why we had trouble finding you. Though it’s surprising a non-ninja knows how to avoid detection that well.”

“I’ve had a lot of practice,” Eri said, and glanced toward the girl, Hinata, who seemed to shrink back when the others spoke up, who sat in the spot with the most shadows, as if she didn’t want to be seen, “Being invisible is easy.”

Hinata’s face flushed, just the slightest, when Eri said that. She had caught her when she was trying to be invisible.

“Is there anything you could tell us about them,” Kurenai asked, “Anything about these ninjas that could help us during a potential attack?”

Eri thought about it. She had picked up enough about the gang while spying on them, but when they started hunting her down, she realized they were a lot more of them than she imagined. They were a lot stronger than she imagined.

“I thought there were only five or so of them, but I think there’s more, a lot more,” Eri said, remembering the last few days. The seven ninjas Kin had gotten rid over across a few different encounters. “None of them seem to have any particular skills, though. They’re strong but not extraordinary. The only issue is that they like to attack in numbers.”

“Well, we have numbers too,” Kurenai said, glancing around at her students, “We’re only here for the night, we’ll leave on the first boat out in the morning, we’ve made the arrangements to leave at dawn.”

Eri had to hold back her a sigh of relief. They didn’t know about the other boat, the one leaving at half past midnight, the one she planned to get on with Kin.

“Ughh, dawn,” Kiba groaned, thinking about how early that meant and the way his and Akamaru’s stomachs had not taken well to the open waters, “and another boat trip.”

Eri chuckled, “You get sea sickness, kid?”

Kiba rolled his eyes, “I’m not really a kid, but yeah, me and Akamaru don’t like the water.”

“Well technically, we are kids,” Shino, the one that Eri had noticed was tall and kind of broody, “Even if we are ninja.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kiba said, “you, my mom, and every adult within a ten-foot vicinity keeps reminding me.”

“You should cherish that, ninjas don’t get to stay kids for long,” Eri said, thinking too much about everything that she had saw. The boy with the puppy, Kiba, still had that carefree look about him. He still looked like he enjoyed being a kid even if he didn’t want to admit it. And the other guy, Shino, quiet as he was, had a way of moving around that seemed relaxed, like there were no burdens on his shoulders besides this mission. But not that girl, Hinata already looked like her childhood was far behind her. She looked at her again, this time, speaking directly to her, “Isn’t that right, Hinata?”

Hinata was taken aback, a deep flush spread across her face. Why was this woman looking at her like that, like she recognized something within Hinata? And why did Hinata feel that recognition too? 

“Oh…um,” Hinata stuttered out, “I guess everyone has different responsibilities, depending on who they are.”

It was the most she could say without spilling it all, the most she could admit about her father’s pressure and the weight of being the Hyuga heir, how it had made her grow up a long time ago. Hinata hadn’t felt like a kid since the day her mother died.

Eri was intrigued by her answer. She tried to remember what was special about the Hyuga clan. Weren’t they a particularly strong clan, second only to the Uchiha…well the Uchiha before that night? And weren’t they a noble clan too, one of those ones that picked heirs and other bullshit? This girl could be that heir, that could be the reason for that weighted sadness Eri recognized in her eyes. No, Eri decided, it had to be something more than that, deeper than that, and for some reason, Eri really wanted to find out.

“Didn’t you run away from the village when you were fifteen?” Kiba asked, interrupting both Eri and Hinata’s thoughts. He was clearly the talker of the group. “Weren’t you just a kid then?”

“Yeah, I was fifteen, but I wasn’t a kid. You don’t really get a childhood when your dad is an abusive asshole,” Eri said bitterly. The older she got, the easier this was to say. She remembered, so much, when she was younger, the shame of it, the way she would hide the marks, come up with excuses for the injuries. Only Itachi knew. But the older she got, the more comfortable she was with that word – abuse – it’s what her dad did to her, it’s what she could name whenever she damn well pleased, even if it disturbed these young ninja.

Kurenai felt a jolt of panic go through her. He suspicions about Ito Nomura were true, but that now that Eri had said it, it would blow the cover of the mission. Her students thought they were retrieving Eri because Ito wanted her, not because of the intel she could provide about the Uchiha Massacre. But something inside of Kurenai bit her tongue, something made her pause, to listen to how this conversation played out.

“What do you mean your father was abusive?” Kiba asked, confused by why they were tracking her down if she didn’t have a good relationship with her father.

“I mean just that,” Eri said, looking at the shock on the young kid’s face. Clearly, he had some good parents, if he couldn’t even imagine what an abusive parent was like, “That he was abusive. Ito is a man who just wanted to hit someone. After my mom ran off when I was eight, I was his favorite target.”

“I don’t get it,” Kiba said, unfurling over the mission’s objectives. Not getting that a father who wanted his daughter back was the same man who hit her.

Eri almost rolled her eyes at that. But at the same time, it made her happy, that this boy couldn’t even comprehend parental abuse. She felt an urge to spill it all, to tell this group of strangers what it was like, what growing up with a father like hers meant. And so, she did.

“It wasn’t always hitting. He was creative. This,” she said, gesturing to the scar cut through corner of her lips, “Was from a kitchen knife. He didn’t like who I was kissing.”

And there was the unsaid part, Eri thought to herself, he didn’t like who she was kissing because the person she was kissing was another girl. It was the first time Eri had heard the word, the word thrown at girls like her to hurt them – dyke.

“And this,” she said, touching the scar of her head, “he slammed my head through the window.”

“But most of time, it was more direct, punching and kicking and choking me. He always hit harder when he was drunk, but his aim was sloppier,” Eri continued, “It wasn’t always physical. When I was younger, it was a lot of yelling and demeaning names and locking me in closets for days on end and forgetting I existed. But it eventually became more. I’m honestly not sure what stage was worse.”

As she spoke, she felt simultaneous waves of relief and of deep, aching sadness pass over her. It always felt like this when she talked about what her father did to her, like both getting rid of and continuing to carry that burden.

Kiba was surprised. Sure, his mom was harsh and would sometimes lightly smack him in the head if he was acting particularly idiotic, but he couldn’t imagine her doing anything like that. Shino, too, was a little surprised. His father was stern and vigilant when he went on missions, but Shino had never felt a bit of that harshness directed at him. And Hinata…Hinata had a horrible churning in her stomach, a dread filling her up. It was the old stone again, rolling around in a heavy demise. She wasn’t surprised at all to hear Eri, could picture, a thousand different ways that her father would do the same to her.

And Eri noticed the look on Hinata’s face, saw the way it was so different from the shock and horror on her teammates’ faces. Hinata’s face didn’t look surprised, didn’t look scared. Instead, the girls’ eyes, the set of her mouth, the dark way she held herself – it all may Eri think the girl knew exactly what she was talking about. So that is it, Eri thought, the sadness I’ve seen in her from the start. She barely knew this girl, but somehow knew, just like she had recognized in Kin a few days earlier, that she was being abused. Hinata glanced up at Eri, catching her eye, and something deep and unnamed passed between them, lasting only a moment, but a significant one.

“But our mission,” Shino said, breaking the tension of the moment, “Is to bring you back for your father.”

“Oh really,” Eri said, heavy sarcasm in her voice. She looked at Kurenai, who gave her a stiff nod. These three ninjas knew nothing about the Uchiha Massacre and Eri’s connection to it, “that’s surprising to hear. I –”

But before Eri could finish, all four of them were on their feet, stiff and ready to fight, sensing something she could not sense.

“Protect Eri,” Kurenai said tensely, “And protect each other.”

Barely a second later, Eri heard it, her less trained ears picking up the movements in the woods. They jumped in the clearing all at once, at least ten of them, but maybe more. A few of them she recognized, the men who escaped from Kin the day before. But many of them she didn’t. Everything went faster than Eri could keep track of then.

Itachi used to tell her that fighting always felt slow and episodic, like it was full of so many pauses and strategy and commentary. And maybe that was true, for ninjas, maybe fighting felt like short snippets playing out over long episodes of time. But for non-ninja, it all went too fast to keep track of.

All the rogue ninja went after Eri, and all the Leaf Village ninja stopped them. Shino handled two ninjas at once. They were twice his size and scary looking, but the boy looked confident as what seemed like black clouds poured from his sleeves. The clouds covered the two ninjas, who screamed and panicked. In the dancing shadow of the flames, she realized, it was bugs, hundreds and hundreds of bugs covering the screaming men. Meanwhile, Kiba and Akamaru, that tiny little puppy, fought in tandem, dancing around another two ninjas, taking bites out of them, dodging weapons with yips of excitement. Kurenai faced four ninjas alone. But Kurenai was moving so fast, it didn’t look like she was moving at all. And sometimes it looked like she was moving in and out of trees and stone. At another moment, Eri swore she saw Kurenai jump straight out of the flames. It must be genjutsu, that tricky mind fuck thing that some ninjas did. Hinata faced three ninja, men who sneered at the small girl. But then Hinata did something that looked like a spinning dance, her fingers pointed out, and the men collapsed in a heap beside her.

There was more too, more she couldn’t keep track of. At one point, she heard a desperate yelp, Akamaru crying out and Kiba screaming loudly in response. At another point, one of the rogue ninja grabbed onto her, pulling harshly at her arm. But then there was a groan and the pressure was released, Shino dragging the man away in a second. She heard shouting and hitting and the clang of metal and more and more and more, and then it was all over.

Hinata shook her, bringing her back to her senses, “Eri, it’s over. Two of them got away, but they were really injured, they probably won’t come back.”

Eri looked around, at the bodies that surrounded them, either knocked out or killed. She didn’t think these young ninjas had it in them, but she knew better than to doubt what ninjas could do. Kiba was bent over Akamaru, who was yelping as Kiba tried to straighten his back leg, it was horribly bent out of shape. Shino was wrapping bandage around Kurenai’s side, a long slash of red cutting through her.

These strangers, they had fought so hard for her. Each of them making sure she wasn’t hurt, some of them hurt themselves. And Hinata, the young girl in front of her, deeply sad in ways that Eri herself felt, making sure she was okay after a fight she barely participated in. It was all too much for her. As soon as they were asleep, she would find Kin, she would make sure they didn’t have to worry about her again.

* * *

Later that night, Hinata stayed up a lot longer than she should. Part of it was adrenaline from the fight. The other part of it was what Eri had said, about the way her dad beat her, the history of the scars on her face. She had been looking right at Hinata when she described it, had looked at Hinata like she knew.

Hiashi never hit Hinata. And she didn’t think he ever would. But why was it that when Eri was describing her Dad’s cruelty, Hinata wasn’t surprised? Instead, she had felt a familiar pull in her stomach, like a heavy, sinking stone. Her father had never physically hurt her, but somehow, she knew exactly why Eri had looked at her like that.

Kiba and Shino were up too, also thinking about Eri’s words, thinking about how impossible they seemed. They weren’t completely naive, knew that people could be cruel, knew about ninjas and non-ninjas who made sport of hurting others. But they never imagined that hurt coming from a family member, never imagined someone would be willing to hurt their own blood.

All three young ninja heard the sounds then, light and quick, as Eri ran away from camp. They were all up immediately, running after her. Kurenai and Akamaru, they decided, should stay asleep, should heal from their injuries. They could handle this; they didn’t need to wake them.

They caught up with Eri just outside of the clearing where Hinata had first found her. Eri let out a deep sigh – ninjas were always so stupidly perceptive. She had tried to be as quiet as she could, didn’t want them to know she was leaving. She only spent a few hours with them, and in that time, they had saved her and been kind to her. They didn’t need to see the moment of their failure.

Hinata spoke up first, “Where are you going?”

“I’m not coming,” Eri replied, sad most of all to disappoint the girl she was sure shared the same sadness as her, “And you’d have to fight me to stop me.”

“Is this about your father?” Shino asked.

“I’m sure we could find a way to keep you away from him, if you wanted to come back to the Village,” Kiba said, “We could be your own personal bodyguards or something. Keep him away from you.”

Eri smiled at that. This was the part that always got her about ninjas from the Leaf Village, about their need to always help, about their need to do right. Even ninjas like Itachi, she thought, even ninjas who didn’t appear like they were doing the right thing.

“It’s complicated,” Eri said with a sigh, “On one hand, it is my father. I’m never coming back to the Leaf Village while that man is still alive. But it’s more, stuff that happened on the night I left. Stuff that Kurenai isn’t allowed to tell you. My father isn’t the only one who wants me back to the Leaf Village. I was never coming back, I lied to you all. I just wanted someone to protect me from that rogue ninja gang.”

None of them was surprised that Kurenai was keeping something from them. That had all secretly sensed there was something more to this mission to this. It had felt too simple, just finding a non-ninja because her father wanted her back, their mission had felt bigger than that from the start.

“We didn’t get all of them,” Hinata said, “They’re still out there, you still need protection.”

“I have someone,” Eri explained, “a friend. I’m about to meet her. She can protect me. Please, nothing you can do would ever make me return to the Leaf Village.”

Hinata, Shino, and Kiba all looked at each other, somehow silently communicating with each other that they weren’t willing to fight Eri. That they weren’t going to force her to come back, to face the potential of seeing her father. They knew something bigger was going on, knew that this meant giving up success in the mission, they knew they were taking a Chance. But they were okay with that.

“We won’t stop you,” Hinata said.

“Yeah, if you got someone to protect you, then you’re good to go,” Kiba added.

“Sparing you from your father is more important than this mission,” Shino said seriously.

Eri smiled at them, smiled at these ninja who she barely knew, smiled because they were offering her so much kindness in spite of their mission, in spite of knowing they would have to return to the Leaf Village with empty hands.

“Thank you,” Eri said softly.

“It was nice to meet you, though,” Hinata said, her voice just as soft.

Eri felt a pull then, a pull to help this girl, the one who looked so sad, so worn-down, so just like herself, “Hinata, I need you to know. Even if he doesn’t beat you, it doesn’t mean it’s not abuse. You deserve more than that.”

Hinata let out a sharp breath then. So Eri knew, somehow recognized the tension of a father who made her feel so deeply unloved. Hinata had been too scared to realize it before, too nervous to really acknowledge it. She needed Eri, needed someone else who knew how it felt, to tell that Hiashi was abusive, to tell her she deserved more.

Kiba and Shino looked between the two girls, not understanding for a moment but then it hitting them. The way Hinata never talked about her family, the way she would sometimes come to training sessions already exhausted and overworked, the way she sometimes seemed to want to stretch out their team meetings, would think of any excuse not to go home. Something was wrong in the Hyuga household, and if they were better teammates, maybe they would have seen it before a stranger did.

Eri gave them one last smile and moved through the woods. This time, Team 8 stayed still and did not follow her. Instead, they returned to camp in silence, each of them feeling the weight of the moment that had just passed. Each of them deciding this would make their team something more, not less.

And Eri, she was meeting up with the woman she had spent the last three days with. There were hugs and words and news of how their plans were going. And there was the man, Hidan, laying still beneath them, knocked out by all the nightshade Kin had fed them. And then there was a clasping of hands, the women running off, the man left behind.

Remember, I told you, sometimes stories are mixed. Eri and Kin have other stories, living in the _Corners_ of our narratives. We’ll sweep those corners eventually, but right now, we’re _Here_ with Team 8. 

* * *

The next morning, they pretended that Eri had snuck away while they all slept. Kurenai suspected that was a lie, suspected that her students knew more than they let on. But then again, she couldn’t be fully honest with them either, couldn’t let them know why it meant a lot for Eri to come back with them. But it didn’t matter. She and Akamaru needed care from a medical ninja, and she couldn’t keep Hinata, Kiba, and Shino here for another search when she wasn’t at full capacity to protect them. Besides, after the conversation they had the night before, she doubted that Eri was still even on the island.

So, Team 8 returned to the Leaf Village, quieter and slower this time, carrying the changes that had happened. The Hokage was disappointed, but not enough to deem the mission a total failure. They had new information about Eri, and this could possibly help future ninja locate her, if Hiruzen chose to pursue that.

When Kiba got home, Tsume was waiting for him, throwing some meat and veggies around in a pan, the smell hitting Kiba and Akamaru’s noses a delight.

“So, I heard you let Akamaru get hurt?” Tsume said with a growl, looking at the bundle in Kiba’s arms.

Kiba let his face drop, “I didn’t mean too, but he’s okay right now, aren’t you buddy?”

Akamaru’s leg was properly set now, and he was just coming out of a nap. He barked in response and nuzzled deeper into Kiba’s arms.

“He better be” Tsume said, “Kiba, it’s our job to protect our ninja dogs, it’s a partnership. Akamaru isn’t your sidekick.”

“I know Mom, I know,” Kiba answered.

“And Akamaru, same goes for you. My son isn’t your sidekick, you gotta protect him as much as he protects you, you got that?”

Akamaru let out a small yip in response. Kiba and Tsume smiled at the puppy.

“Alright, then let’s all have dinner,” Tsume said, scooping out the food she was cooking into bowls for all three of them, “They’re nothing like coming back to a hot meal after a long mission.”

They ate in silence for a moment, but then Kiba looked up. He had the type of mom who would give him hell, who would get on his nerves, who would pester him to no end. But she was also the type of mom who cared about him, wanted the best for him and Akamaru, and would cook him a meal to eat whenever he got home from a long mission. He knew now, that this wasn’t what everyone was lucky enough to have.

“Hey Mom,” he said after pushing his empty bowl of food away, “Thanks, you know, for just being you.”

Meanwhile, Shino got home to what seemed like an empty house. He dropped off his stuff and went looking outside for his father. Although the Aburame clan mostly used chakra beetles for ninjutsu, they held relationships with a variety of insects, their gardens behind their home full of all different species.

Shibi was sitting near the bee nests. Shino joined them, noticing the chaos buzzing in and within the hive.

“They lost the queen,” Shino observed.

“Just as I heard you lost something on the mission,” Shibi replied.

Shino knew that his father would want an explanation of why their mission wasn’t successful, knew that he expected better of Shino.

“It’s complicated,” Shino said, “But it’s probably better that the lost girl didn’t return home.”

Shibi watched the bees in silence for a moment, listened as the buzzing drone became more excited, my organized. They had found a new queen. Everything would be fine.

“I believe you son,” Shibi said after a long stretch of time and got up to leave.

Shino watched his father leave, happy that he didn’t ask for more explanation, happy that he had a father who would take him at his word, who believed him. He knew now that everyone didn’t have parents who believed in them, or parents worth believing. And Shino knew how he could let his father know that without having to use to words.

Hinata was the last to return home. She had stayed by Kurenai’s side as the medical ninja fixed her up. Had told Kiba to go after Akamaru’s leg had been set, had told Shino not to worry. But Kurenai’s wound wasn’t too bad, they had arrived back in the village early that morning and already, Kurenai was free to go that night. And now Hinata had to face it, had to see her dad again.

Her stomach rolled with anxiety, Eri’s final words pushing through her head. About Hiashi, about the implication that he was abusive. About how Hinata didn’t deserve it. Surprisingly, when she walked in the door, her dad was waiting for her, Hanabi by his side.

“Hello Hinata,” he said tensely. Hinata felt her stomach swoop in joy, he was talking to her again. But then she thought about everything he would say to her, about how he was probably only talking to her again to get her in trouble for the failure that was their mission, to remind her she was nothing.

“Hello F-F-Father,” she stuttered out, nervous about what he would say.

“We’re going to have a training session,” he said, “You and Hanabi, sparring.”

“But—”

“But what?” Hiashi said, cutting her off.

But, Hinata wanted to say, was that had just returned from a two-week long mission, that she was exhausted and wanted to rest, that she didn’t have to let him push her around like this. But the look in his eyes was deadly and everything she had been thinking about on their return home, all the ways that learning about Eri had made her rethink her relationship with her dad, disappeared in fear of his glare.

“Nothing, I’ll spar Hanabi,” Hinata said, dropping her eyes to the ground.

The fight didn’t last long. Hinata was exhausted and her senses were slow. She was also scared too, shaking and nervous and letting herself be sloppy. Hanabi was in top form, hitting Hinata and knocking her to the ground again and again. Hinata knew her little sister wasn’t beating her in malice, she had just as much pressure on her to perform.

After the third time Hanabi knocked Hinata down, Hiashi ordered them to stop and then turned to Hinata.

“You’re pathetic Hinata,” Hiashi said, the malice in his voice biting into Hinata’s gut.

“Dad, I’m just tired, if you’ll just let me get some rest—” Hinata began but Hiashi cut her off sharply.

“You think ninjas have time for rest, you think that on a mission, you can just rest whenever you want? No wonder you failed. I’m surprised you even made it back. You’re lazy and weak, a disgrace to the Hyuga name!”

Hinata was terrified, but she was also tired. Tired of the way he spoke to her even when she was trying her hardest. Tired in knowing that this wasn’t even the worse, that he had the capacity to be so much meaner in his words. Or he didn’t used words at all, he’d ignore her, treat as if she was invisible. Or push her to train until she collapsed, screaming at her to get back up. It was just like Eri said, he didn’t have to hit her for it to be abuse.

“No, I’m not,” Hinata said, her voice small and shaky, “I’m not a disgrace to the Hyuga name.”

Hiashi looked down at her darkly, “You don’t get to decide that.”

Heart still beating fast, voice still shaky, Hinata looked at her father and decided she was done. She was done with being abused; done with the way he had treated her since her mother died. It all came spilling out of her in a huge, stumbling rush of anger and resentment and sadness.

“And you don’t get to decide if my mission is a failure! You weren’t there, you don’t know what happened. We didn’t bring Eri back, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t succeed in something,” Hinata said, her voice rising to a yell, “And you don’t get to treat me like this, like I’m nothing. I’m more than you think.”

“You’re my daughter and I will treat you however I see fit!” Hiashi yelled back.

“No! Not like this!” her voice finally reaching its full peak, small but strong, like it had been waiting all along for her to stand up to her father, like she was finally saying and asking all the questions she had wondered for the last six years, “What happened to you Dad? You were always stern, but you were never like this, you were never cruel, not until Mom died. We all lost her, not just you, you don’t get to be the only one who is bitter and angry about it.”

But before she could finish, Hiashi stepped forward and slapped Hinata across the face. Slapped her so hard that she fell back, the sting of it knocking her down. She reached up and touched the burning red mark on her face, in shock. She was in shock that he did it, that he had finally hit her, but more in shock by the words that had left her own mouth, that she was able to let the last six years’ worth of resentment spill out like that, to call her father out for turning cruel after he mother’s death. Hot tears bubbled out of her eyes and spilled down her cheeks.

“Hina,” Hanabi said, dropping beside Hinata, wiping the tears from her eye.

Hiashi looked at them with dark eyes, his heart pounding, his face red. And when he spoke next it was with more venom than Hinata had ever heard in his voice, “Get out of here, get out of this house.”

“What?” Hinata asked, frantic, fear suddenly gripping every part of her.

“You are no longer the heir to the Hyuga clan,” Hiashi said, his voice slow and cold, “Hanabi is the only daughter I have now. She’s the new heir.”

“Dad,” Hinata said, a new wave of tears coming out, her breath ragged. She couldn’t believe this was happening.

“If you’re still on this property in half an hour, I won’t be scared to take full force to remove you from it. And I never want to see you again,” Hiashi said and with that, he turned away from his daughters, walked up the hallway, and shut himself up in the dark tomb of his room.

“No Hina, don’t listen to Daddy, I don’t want you to leave,” Hanabi said, throwing her arms around Hinata.

Hinata didn’t know what to feel. If she had known that standing up for herself had meant this, she would have never done it, would have never given her father a chance to disown her. But another part of her felt relieved. She was no longer the heir to the Hyuga clan, she no longer had to feel that pressure. Neither of these emotions won out, instead, it was numbness that took their place.

“I have to go Hanabi,” she said, pulling away from her sister’s arms, “I have leave now, before he comes back.”

She rushed away from Hanabi then, running to her room and packing as much as she could in just a few minutes. Fresh tears still spilled down her cheeks, which started to burn with the force of her father’s slap. Her hands were shaking, her heart racing. She fumbled as she packed, but eventually, fit as much as she could into her pack.

The air outside was cool and a little humid, a little full of anticipation – it was going to rain. Hinata took one last at the Hyuga main house and knew, deep down in her bones, that is was always going to come to this, whether she stood up for herself or not.

She turned away and ran into the incoming rain.

* * *

Luckily, the rain was not a storm, just a light drizzle. Hinata was thinking about where she could find a place to sleep. Despite being in a rush, she had never really unpacked from the mission. Her sleeping bag was still in it, she just needed to find a place where no one could find her and after tonight…she couldn’t think beyond tonight, couldn’t think about the fact that she was without a home, without a family.

And then Hinata bumped into Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto, who somehow always seemed to show up when she was at her lowest, when she was down.

“H-hi Naruto,” Hinata stuttered out, a hot blush spread across her cheeks.

“Hinata,” Naruto said, his face a little confused, “I haven’t seen you since the last day of the academy.”

He said this like it had been years, not just three months, since they were at the academy. But it was true, none of the Rookie Nine had really seen each other since being grouped into their teams. It was something Hinata missed, getting to see Naruto’s smile every day, not that she would ever admit that to anyone. As Hinata was thinking, the rain picked up from a low drizzle to a stronger down pour.

“Ughh,” Naruto groaned, “come on, let’s get out of this.”

As Naruto said this, he grabbed Hinata by her elbow and gently pulled her under an awning of a nearby building. Hinata felt the touch of his hand over her jacket and felt the pace of her heart pick up. But he let go of her arm as soon as they were under the shade.

“Hmm, something wrong with your face?” Naruto asked, peering two closely at her cheek.

“Wh-what?” Hinata asked, pushing her hand to her cheek. And then she remembered, the slap, the burning of it, the soreness of it now, under her fingers.

“It’s all red and stuff,” Naruto said, still staring at her face too intently for her to calm down.

“Um,” she said, nerves shaking her voice, trying to think of a quick explanation, “I got in a fight...no, I mean we got into a fight, me and Kiba and Shino, but not with each other, no…um, on our mission, we just got back from Nagi Island, we had a mission there.”

Naruto just stared at her as she stumbled over her words, each of them more embarrassing then the last. But he brightened up as she finished speaking, “That’s so cool that you went to Nagi Island. We just got our first big mission too, escorting some bridge builder to the Land of Waves. We’re leaving tomorrow.”

Hinata let out a barely, there soft smile, “I’m sure you’re going to do great on that mission.”

Naruto gave her a grin then, the one she liked best, his mouth wide and his eyes closed. She had seen this smile so much on Naruto, at his own jokes in class, toward the other boys he joked around with, but never directed at her. It took her breath away for the moment.

“Well, uh, guess I better get home before this gets too cold,” Naruto said, breaking the awkward moment of silence and holding up what looked like ramen take out.

Hinata tried not to let the disappoint show up on her face, just nodded in response to him. He put a hand over his head, as if it would stop the current downpour, and jumped out into the rain. Hinata watched as he ran in the rain for a moment, then paused and looked back at her.

“Hey Hinata, I bet that mark is going to turn into a great bruise! A battle scar to be proud of!” Naruto yelled through the downpour. He gave her one more cheesy grin and then ran off.

Hinata couldn’t help the smile that bloomed on her face. Standing up to her father was a battle scar worth getting.

* * *

The next morning, Kurenai awoke to the sound of banging on the door. She rolled over, looked at the clock, 5am, and sat up with a groan. She clutched at her side, it definitely felt like she had popped on of her stitches in her sleep. The banging at her door continued.

She got up, threw a blanket around her shoulders and opened the door.

Hiashi Hyuga was standing at the door, with a look that immediately made Kurenai feel self-conscious about her pajamas, the blanket wrapped around her shoulders, and the usual messiness of her morning hair.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” he asked curtly.

“Um, sure,” Kurenai said, stepping out of the doorway so he could enter. Hiashi Hyuga was a foreboding man, and one she wasn’t quite comfortable having in her home. He looked around, raising an eyebrow at the half-messy state of her place. It wasn’t much, a large open-space studio with a bed, a coach, and a kitchen to the side. A bathroom in the corner, a few closets for storage. She watched him take it all in.

“Can I ask what you’re doing here?” Kurenai said. In general, she tried to be respectful to her students’ parents. She thought Tsume was a trip, the kind of woman she hoped she would be like in ten of so years. Shibi was quiet but thoughtful, just like his son. But she had never met Hinata’s father, had never met the head of the famed Hyuga clan. All she knew about him was the talk about the clan, that he worked Hinata too hard, that that there was a look on Hinata’s face, the other night when Eri was speaking, that had made Kurenai’s stomach fall.

“Hinata is no longer a member of the Hyuga clan. I though you might want to know, since you’re her…teacher,” he said, turning to her, like the word teacher was a revolting thing.

“What do you mean she’s no longer a member of the Hyuga clan,” Kurenai asked, confused. She knew that noble clans had a lot of different rules, were a lot different than normal clans, but she couldn’t imagine what had happened to cause this.

“It’s just as I said, she is no longer a member of the clan, I don’t have space of patience for weaklings,” Hiashi said.

He spoke everything as if it were fact, as if he somehow had the stoic, rational view of it. It made Kurenai’s blood boil, to hear him speaking about Hinata like this, “Hinata isn’t weak.”

“Maybe not to your low standards.”

Kurenai almost had to bite her tongue to stop herself from angrily reacting to that. She had to remind herself that she was still healing, that she was standing beside one of the most powerful men in the Leaf Village. It wouldn’t be wise to get him angry.

“Why are telling me this? Does Hinata’s status in the Hyuga clan affect her being on Team 8?” Kurenai asked, trying to go for the inquisitive approach, trying to figure out what happened.

“Because I kicked her out. I figured you could take her in, it looks like your couch would do,” he said, flicking his eyes to the old thing.

Kurenai’s mouth dropped, “Where is Hinata now?”

“I’m assuming she’s at wherever she found lodging last night, it’s none of my business anymore, but I’m sure you’ll find out, you have a team meeting or something else today, right?”

Again, Kurenai had to stop herself from yelling. She couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe that this man had kicked his own daughter, a twelve-year-old, out last night. And, Kurenai thought, it had stormed most of the night. She had come to understand Hinata over the last three months, had figured out that the girl imagined herself as a burden, probably thinking that way because of the asshole standing in front of her right now. There is no way Hinata slept in anyone’s place last night, there was no way she would have allowed herself to ask.

“Yes, there’s a team meeting today,” Kurenai said through gritted teeth.

“Then I’m sure you’ll do the right thing,” Hiashi said and headed toward the door. Kurenai wanted to say more but she let him pass.

She should have noticed earlier, should have seen the signs. The grim way Hinata never talked about her family, the way she would show up to team practices already worn out from long nights of training, and then the other night, back on Nagi Island, the way Hinata and Eri had looked at each other, like they shared some sad bond. Kurenai couldn’t believe that Hinata had a father who was so cruel.

But maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t a total monster. He told Kurenai about disowning her, he wanted her to take Hinata in. She may no longer be welcome in the Hyuga clan, but at least Hiashi wanted to make sure she had a place to sleep at night. Kurenai looked at the dreadful state of her apartment, hoped Hinata would like it, and reminded herself to call Asuma, to ask him to give back the key she had just given him. A small sacrifice, but totally worth it.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Hinata walked to the training grounds where the team had agreed to meet for a mission debriefing. They had already had their formal debriefing with the Hokage, but Kurenai always liked to have a more informal one after missions were over.

The rain hadn’t let up the rest of the night and Hinata had spent entirely too much time under the awning, until the warmth and joy that Naruto had briefly brought her had ran out and she felt the cold reality of all that was happening to her. She had thought maybe she could find a cave, or an alley with a lot of coverage. She was just about to run out from under the awning when the shop owner called her inside.

It had been an awkward conversation, one where he implied without directly saying it that he knew she had no where to go, one where she didn’t give any direct answers, and one that ended with him telling her, with a strange enunciation, when he was closing the shop and when he was opening it. Hinata understood well enough, understood that the kind ramen shop owner was telling her she could spend the night in the restaurant, as long as she left by the opening in the morning. That morning, she said a silent thank you for the ramen shop owner and headed to the training grounds, where she relaxed until the meeting.

But now Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino were here, and she would have to face them. She hadn’t really talked to them, not since the night they let Eri get away, not since they probably figured out a little bit more about her than she wanted them to know. And now this, she couldn’t face it, couldn’t think about it, couldn’t imagine the shame of telling her teammates.

“Hello Kiba. Hello Shino,” she said, walking up. She looked at Akamaru and gave him a pat on the head “How is Akamaru doing?”

“Loving all the extra attention he’s getting from my mom, my sister, and pretty much every woman is walking distance,” Kiba said with a mischievous smile, “A puppy is cute enough, but a puppy with a broken leg, they love it.”

Hinata let herself had a small smile.

“I’ve been thinking,” Shino said, his voice startling both of them, “I think we should have a monthly dinner as a team.”

Both of them looked at Shino in surprise. But Shino was telling the truth when he said he had been thinking. For the most part, Shino never really cared or concerned himself with anyone outside of his family. It didn’t seem worth the time. But there was something different about Kiba and Hinata, something inside of him that wanted to get close to his teammates. Something, he thought, that would help them be more open with each other, help them figure out how to take care of each other, Hinata most of all.

“Wait, are you…you of all people,” Kiba said, his voice amused, “suggesting a social group activity?”

Shino nodded. Kiba let out a laugh, “Well I’m always ready to ready to share some food.”

Kiba had been thinking, just like Shino, about how he wanted to take this team more seriously, how he wanted them to be people he invested his time into, how he wanted to be a teammate who noticed things before they got too bad.

“I think a monthly team dinner would be great,” Hinata said, trying not to think about her current lack of home and family, thinking instead about how she could make a family with her team.

“And would I be invited to this?” Kurenai said, walking up. She had overheard their idea, had been just as surprised as the other two that Shino was the first one to suggest it.

“No, you’d ruin it. We want to share secrets behind your back,” Kiba said, with a laugh and sarcasm in his voice.

Kurenai smiled then, “Speaking of secrets, I need you to share the one you’re keeping from me.”

All three young ninja dropped into serious faces then, understanding that Kurenai wanted to know what really happened to Eri, knew that Kurenai sensed something about her leaving that night. Hinata looked between her two teammates, decided that she didn’t want to keep anything from Kurenai.

“We let her get away, well, no, we just didn’t stop her,” Hinata explained.

“We didn’t think it was fair, to bring her back the village where her dad abused her,” Kiba added her, picking up where Hinata had left off.

“It’s like you said on our mission,” Shino said, speaking more than he normally did, “As ninja of the Leaf Village, we should protect non-ninja.”

“I see,” Kurenai said, her voice low. She was proud of them, really, happy that they had learned the lesson of protecting the innocent, but also knew that they had had no idea what was at stake in bringing Eri back.

“Now spill your secrets too,” Kiba said, surprising her with the force in his voice, “Eri told us there was more to it, more you couldn’t tell it.”

Kurenai hadn’t expected this. She had suspected, the way that they were acting when they left the island was suspect, had waited until they weren’t in front of the Hokage to press it. But she hadn’t expected them to turn the tables on her. She owed them as much honesty as she could give them.

“When Eri lived in the Leaf Village she was friends with someone who would become a very dangerous rogue ninja. He did some pretty horrible things a few years ago, and that’s what I’m not allowed she share,” Kurenai explained, making sure they heard that second part sternly, making sure they knew she couldn’t share that part, “The night that happened, both he and Eri disappeared. Our sources knew they weren’t traveling together but thought that Eri would have information about that night, about where the rogue ninja might be.”

“So it was never about her father?” Kiba asked.

Kurenai shook her head in response.

“But it doesn’t matter if her father wanted her, or the Hokage wanted her for information, it would’ve been wrong to bring her back here, right?” Hinata asked, understanding what it would mean, understanding how hard it would be to face an abusive father again.

Kurenai let out a deep sigh, “If your official capacity as Team 8 Leader and your Instructor, I have to tell you that prioritizing information for the Leaf Village will always be the most important part of the mission. But outside of the capacity, as a person who is just happy that you’re all deeply caring people, I think you made the right choice to let her go.”

Hinata, Kiba, and Shino were happy then, happy to know that their instructor had such faith in them, that she was able to approach them in such official and unofficial capacities.

“Right, now official business,” Kurenai said, putting on what she thought of as her instructor voice, “Because of mine and Akamaru’s injuries, we’re off for a week for a recover. I’ve requested that we stick with lower rank, in-village missions for a little while longer.”

Kiba groaned in response to that. Shino let his shoulders sag a little.

“I know, I know,” Kurenai said, “but’s it’s not because I don’t believe in you guys. That rogue gang was pretty scary, and I want to know that you guys can hold your own a little bit more. I only have so many stomachs to sacrifice. And I wouldn’t want you to have to face something like that without me.”

They all nodded, understanding what she meant.

“In the meantime, let’s use our week off to do something fun. Shino?”

“Yes.”

“Since if was your idea, you should go ahead and plan out our first team dinner,” Kurenai said with a smile, “And that’s all, no practices this week, just fun. Dismissed.”

Shino stood up and walked away. Maybe he regretted his idea for a team dinner. Then again, getting to plan the first one meant he could pick some place that actually had good meals and not the garbage he was sure Kiba ate. Kiba made his leave too, happy that they didn’t have to practice, happy that Akamaru would get the time to fully recover. Hinata watched them both go, sad that this meeting had been so short.

“Hinata,” Kurenai said, a smile on her face. “Let’s go home.” 

* * *

Team 8 had found that they were willing to put the well-being of the lost girl of Nagi Island ahead of what they believed to be the purpose of the mission. And in doing so, they had saved another lost girl, their own lost girl. All it took was a little bit of Chance, a better dealing than before.

That’s what the first mission gave Hinata Hyuga, a better chance.


	7. (Here) Reluctant Potentials

All ninjas remember their first mission. Well, not their actual first mission because usually the first mission is something small and easy, tasks that keep them safe and in the village. No, I’m talking about the first time they feel like a ninja, the first mission that is just a little too hard, a little too risky, a little too much. It’s a mission that they’ll survive, of course, for how else could they remember it? But part of them doesn’t survive, part of them is forever changed, realizing, perhaps for the first time, the true stakes of the life they have chosen. Not all ninjas can handle it, and sometimes, after that first real mission, they leave shinobi lifestyle behind. And other times, the emerge learning how to lead in a way that they never had before.

This is what happened to Shikamaru Nara, on his first real mission.

Team 10’s first real mission was a delivery mission. One that took them out of Konoha, through the depths of deep ravines and to abandoned homes. Sent with a package that needed protecting, but they would come to protect so much more.

* * *

Shikamaru Nara opened his eyes, the bright sunlight poking at him through the windows. He had been awake for a while, the light behind his eyelids changing from dark to red and to the acceptance that he had too, eventually, open them up. He let out a sigh as he did this.

Shikamaru was twelve years old and already underwhelmed with life. He did well enough at the academy, never caring enough to perform but smart enough that he didn’t do too poorly. He didn’t even bother to study or practice for the graduation exam, but had passed anyway, and had spent the last few months doing various missions with his teammates. If you could call them missions. There wasn’t exactly anything thrilling about weeding some old person’s garden, delivering groceries around the village, or finding that annoying cat…again. He had thought, maybe, that being a ninja would be more than this, that it would inspire something in him that he felt like should be there, something he felt like he was missing. Everyone else seemed to have some sort of purpose, some sort of goal, some reason for getting out of bed in the morning. Shikamaru couldn’t think of any. This is what life would be like for him for a while, small missions an ordinary life.

Not that he was sure wanted something more than an ordinary life. Being some type of big hero who had to save the day all the time seemed just as exhausting to him as being an average ninja with an ordinary life. Shikamaru didn’t know what he wanted out of life, he only hoped that, for once, something would excite him.

Whatever, he thought, this is too heavy to deal with in the morning, I’m getting out of bed.

In the kitchen, only his father was sitting at the table. He looked up when Shikamaru walked in.

“Where’s Mom?” he asked, looking at the empty table. His Dad wasn’t one to fix breakfast, so Shikamaru would have to grab a snack or something before he headed to the Hokage’s office.

“She’s on a mission, didn’t you hear her say goodbye last night?” Shikaku said, annoyed that his son seemed more and more disconnected from his life each day. It worried him. He thought becoming a genin, accepting the Ino-Shika-Cho legacy, would have stirred something in Shikamaru, would have motivated him more. But instead, Shikamaru returned from each mission looking more and more defeated, more tired than anything else.

Shikamaru vaguely recalled his Mom mentioning a two-day mission, something about escorting someone to another village. Not too dangerous, a simple mission really, but not something that a genin like him was worthy of doing. Shikamaru had mumbled a goodbye to her, had been spacing out at the time.

“Oh, yeah, I guess,” he said, digging through the cabinets and finding something to eat. Chips would do, he’d eat like Chouji today. His mom was nagging at best and outright frustrating at worst. He didn’t understand how his dad put up with it so much.

“You really need to be more engaged Shikamaru,” Shikaku said, an edge in his voice. If he was going to talk to Shikamaru about this, it would probably be best when Yoshino wasn’t around. If she got involved with it, Shikamaru would tune her out and then tune out the whole thing. His son really had a problem listening to women when they spoke, and maybe that was his bad influence, all the jokes he made about being whipped by Yoshino. But that would be another conversation for another day, this one was more important.

Shikamaru let out a light groan. It was still too early for anything like this, “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t remember mom leaving, I’ll make it up to her when I come back.”

“It’s not just that. Obviously, you should pay attention to your family more, but you’re not engaging with anything. Ever since you’ve become a genin, it’s like you’ve gotten more apathetic than usual,” Shikaku said seriously, “I didn’t even know that was possible of you.”

Shikamaru resisted rolling his eyes. His dad was going to make it that type of troublesome morning. Shikamaru shrugged his shoulder as a response.

“What’s wrong with you?” Shikaku asked, annoyed by the nonplussed response.

“Nothing,” Shikamaru mumbled, finishing off his bag of chips.

“Kid,” Shikaku said sternly, “Don’t bullshit me.”

Shikamaru let out a sigh, this was annoying, “I don’t know, it’s nothing. Just nothing feels like it matters.”

Shikaku wasn’t really surprised by this, it was hard to feel like the ninja work you were doing didn’t matter when it was small genin tasks, but he knew Shikamaru was smart enough to know it wouldn’t always be that way, “I thought you’d be a little more excited, to be a ninja, even if it means working your way up.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Shikamaru said, annoyance in his voice, “I know I gotta do these missions until I move up in a ranking, but it doesn’t mean everything is going to suddenly be thrilling all the time.”

“Being a ninja isn’t a thrilling job, son.”

“I know.”

“Then what’s the problem, why you do you walk around like the world is shitting on you,” Shikaku asked, a little tired of Shikamaru’s annoyance, tired of his constant attitude.

“Because it’s all so exhausting, Dad, nothing seems like it’s worth the work,” Shikamaru said and when he did, the annoyance in his voice disappeared, replaced by a tired, sad tone Shikaku hated hearing in his son’s voice.

He tried another approach, “You know, even though we consider ourselves equal in the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, and we are…there’s always someone who naturally becomes the leader. Asuma told me about your test, about the way you gathered your teammates and came up with the strategy to work against him, the way you did it so quickly. He was impressed, especially by you.”

“Yeah, but there were stakes there. None of us wanted to go back to the academy. Nothing is really going to happen if we don’t get some old guy his groceries in time,” Shikamaru said, the same defeat in his voice.

“You’re eventually going to be on missions with stakes, lot of them,” Shikaku said, “And when that happens, you’re not going to be able to turn your back on how troublesome it all feels, you’ll have to step up, you’ll have to be a leader.”

“Sounds—” Shikamaru said but stopped himself, knowing his Dad would only continue to pester him if he said how troubling this was, if he admitted he didn’t want to be a leader, he didn’t want to be anything, he just wanted to go back to sleep.

“Never mind,” Shikamaru said instead, “I have to go now, new mission assignment. I’m sure a garden needs pruning or something.”

Shikaku wanted to say more, didn’t want to this conversation to be done, but Shikamaru was already leaving. Shikamaru, for his part, knew his dad was probably on to something, knew that the test was the most and pretty much only fun he had felt since becoming a genin, but even then, it was barely anything. A small stirring, a little spark. He didn’t know if he cared to make it into a flame.

Of course, Shikamaru Nara knew nothing of what Fate had in store for him, knew nothing of the raging fire that flame would become.

* * *

Asuma Sarutobi was standing in the Hokage’s office, waiting for the young ninja of his team to show up.

At his table, Hiruzen gave him a serious look, “I still don’t like it.”

Asuma rolled his eyes, “We talked about this, they’re ready.”

“They’re certainly ready for something more than D-rank missions, but this is barely a C-rank mission. The only reason it wasn’t ranked higher is because our intel tells us that Enji and his gang no longer make claims to the area,” Hiruzen said, his voice serious.

“I’m aware of the circumstance,” Asuma said, “But I’m also aware of what these three are capable of, of what they could be capable of, if we just gave him a push.”

Hiruzen gave him a blank stare, unimpressed.

“Come on,” Asuma said, understanding more than most what that blank stare meant, “You just gave Kurenai’s team a C-rank mission a few days ago.”

Hiruzen barely contained his eye roll, “That mission was only ranked so high because of distance. The objective isn’t dangerous at all.”

Asuma knew this of course, knew every detail of the mission. Kurenai had departed for a few days ago, but Asuma knew she was worried despite the fact that they were just tracking a non-ninja. Of course, Hiruzen didn’t know this, would be angry at them both if he knew how intimately they shared details of their missions.

“Still proves that you have more faith in her and her team than you do in me and mine,” Asuma said.

“Hmm, I see,” Hirzuen said, a playful glint in his eyes, “And you’d rather I’d play favorites with you than your girlfriend?”

“I’m not talking to you about that,” Asuma said, knowing how much Hiruzen would bother him about it if he did.

“And you’re not a teenager with a secret anymore,” Hiruzen said, “When are you going to man up and make that woman your wife?”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to give me the ‘I want grandkids’ speech,” Asuma said, letting him bait him for a moment, “Isn’t Konahamaru enough?”

Hiruzen let out a chuckle, thinking about his errant grandson and the friends he had been making lately, “You have a point there.”

Asuma didn’t say anything then, just gave the Hokage a long look in the eye. Finally, after he held his gaze for a few moments, Hiruzen spoke again, “Okay, Team 10 gets the delivery mission.”

“Thanks Dad,” Asuma said with a smile on his face. He very rarely let himself call him Dad, only in moments like this, moments when he wanted Hiruzen to know that something meant a lot to him. Usually it was Hokage, or some other form or title. Dad was only for special occasions.

In general, Asuma tried not to think too deeply about his father being Hokage, for a first time, and then again, after Minato passed. It had made his childhood different than most, had made everyone expect more of him, had given him a strange air of nobility that Asuma didn’t like. He rarely told people his surname, he didn’t let people know his lineage, and he only called Hiruzen ‘Dad’ in small private moments. But he had to admit that being the Hokage’s son had his advantages. It meant standing in the Hokage’s office and talking in an intimate way, about girlfriends and grandchildren, in a way that no other ninjas got to do. It meant getting to ask the Hokage for a higher-ranking mission for his team and being told yes. He was willing to be the Hokage’s son when it gave him these advantages. The rest of it…it was too complicated.

A few minutes later, Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji walked in.

“Hey guys, ready for another mission?” Asuma asked. None of them looked too enthusiastic, but nodded their heads anyway, knowing it would be their duty to do whatever was handed to them. Well, they were about to find out…

“Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji,” Hiruzen said. They were suddenly rapt. This was the Hokage, after all, even if he was about to give the usual mission, “Asuma has advocated for all of you to take on your first C-rank mission.”

“Really?” Ino said, excited. She was ecstatic about this, happy that she could use this to show off to Sakura, maybe impress Sasuke. From what she heard; Team 7 was still doing in-Village D-rank missions. This would give her a one up.

“That’s awesome!” Chouji, excited by the prospect of doing more.

Shikamaru didn’t know what to make of the news. To him, it really depended on what the mission was, on how much work it would involve.

“Yes,” Hiruzen said. “You’re to deliver a package to a small town in the Land of Hot Water. While the route is safe and the ninja of Yugakare, the hidden village near the town, are peaceful allies, this package still needs to be delivered with caution. Protecting it and safely delivering it are of the utmost priority.”

“What’s in the package?” Ino asked.

“Those details are confidential Miss Yamanaka,” Hiruzen said, glancing at Asuma. Even he didn’t know what the package contained, but knowing the Hokage, it was likely something important, though not important enough for there to be danger. It wasn’t their job to pry, and he’d have to remind Ino not to be so curious in the future.

“How long is this mission going to take?” Chouji asked.

“Pending no difficulties, travel there and back again should take just over a week,” the Hokage explained. And he kept explaining, all the details they needed to know. The woman who they would be delivering the package to, how to identify her, the name of the town they’d be going to, the route they’d be taking, how to greet ninjas from Yugakare if they stumbled upon them, and all the other details they needed to know to complete the mission.

They asked all the right questions, well, at least Ino and Chouji did. Shikamaru took it all in, each new batch of information feeling like a burden. He liked Chouji well enough, they were buds and had been for quite a while, but he couldn’t imagine traveling with Ino for over a week. He liked Asuma, but he didn’t really know him yet, wasn’t really comfortable around him. Felt like Asuma expected more out of him then he was willing to give.

Shikamaru really had a knack for being right about things like that.

* * *

Later that night, Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji stood outside, in an alley behind a hotpot restaurant. After they dads had found out about their first C-rank mission, they called each other up and just like after graduation, took their children out to dinner, proceeded to get drunk, and shared stories of their first C-rank missions as a team years. While the young ninja listened at first, they felt like their fathers just wanted an excuse to get drunk and reminisce. Ino had said she needed some air, and Shikamaru and Chouji had followed her.

“Do they always have to be that embarrassing?” Ino said, gesturing toward the restaurant.

“Hey, I’m fine with it as long as we get free food out of it,” Chouji said with a grin.

“Of course, you are,” Ino replied while rolling her eyes.

They were always like this, Ino being sassy and overdramatic for no reason, Chouji content only if he had food. It had been a weird few months with them as teammates. On the night after they passed Asuma’s test, they had all had this feeling, one they didn’t want to admit but felt deeply nonetheless, like all their dads’ talk of the Ino-Shiko-Cho formation and its legacy was real, like it really lived on in them. They had felt it that day while trying to make a stand against Asuma, the buzzing kind of deep energy, a synchronicity in the way they thought, moved, and felt. It wasn’t something they had ever felt before.

But that hadn’t returned when they started doing missions, in fact, it had fallen away completely. They didn’t feel like a team that was meant to be, they felt all out of sorts. Ino was always nagging the boys, Chouji was always distracted by food or something else, Shikamaru was always lazy, eager to complain about how everything they were doing was annoying. At night, each of them would take their earrings out, the symbols of the formation, and wonder if they had been too quick to put them in.

Shikamaru let out a deep yawn, “Shouldn’t they be letting us sleep, I mean, our mission starts early tomorrow.”

“Oh please,” Ino said, her quick retorts ready for him too, “If you had it your way, you’d sleep your entire life away,”

“Whatever,” Shikamaru said. He didn’t really care what Ino had to say.

“She’s kinda right, you know,” Chouji said, and at this, Shikamaru paid attention. Chouji was his friend. Shikamaru imagined they had a bond that Ino couldn’t break into; Chouji wasn’t supposed to take her side, “We got our first real mission today and you don’t even seem excited.”

Shikamaru let out an annoyed sigh, “It just seems like a lot of work, okay.”

“But that’s what being a ninja is, doing work,” Ino said.

“And aren’t you happy that Instructor Asuma and the Hokage both trust us to work harder,” Chouji said, enjoying the rare moment where he and Ino agreed, even if meant ganging up on Shikamaru a little bit, which wasn’t something he was a fan of doing.

“Ughhh,” Shikamaru groaned, his voice full of frustration, “Now it’s you guys too, my Dad was already over my ass this morning!”

Shikamaru’s outburst surprised them both, but it was also the biggest reaction they had seen out of him about anything, so it was a change of pace.

“What did your Dad say?” Ino asked, intrigued.

“None of your business,” Shikamaru said curtly.

“Then why even bring it up?” she asked, irking him.

“He told me I needed to step up, okay?” Shikamaru said, his frustration still clear, “That I needed be a leader or something like that.”

Ino and Chouji glanced at each other. Both of their father’s had talks with them about the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, conversations where they told them that while they were all important to the team, the Nara branch usually became the unofficial leader, that they should start to look to Shikamaru as a leader, start to make that dynamic possible on the team. Obviously Shikaku had his own version of this talk with Shikamaru and it didn’t go over well.

“If you’re not willing to step up, if you don’t want to be a leader,” Ino asked, trying to make her voice soft, trying to make Shikamaru understand that she was asking this sincerely and not with the intention to hurt him, “The why are you even a ninja?”

Shikamaru was hurt by that question though. Sure, he wasn’t enthusiastic about being a ninja, but he didn’t even want to imagine life as a non-ninja. He was stuck, he felt like nothing would ever make him happy. He looked to Chouji, waited for his old friend to say something in his defense, but Chouji just shrugged his shoulders.

“Whatever, I’m out of here,” Shikamaru said, walking away, “Tell my Dad I went to get some actual sleep.”

Chouji and Ino watched him walk away, equal parts worried and annoyed. Mixed up and hurt, no longer excited for their first real mission. Shikamaru had led them there.

* * *

Enji was a good businessman, a smart one too, and he knew this wasn’t a smart idea, knew he shouldn’t use his power for personal matters like this, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t let that package be delivered.

Of course, businessman was a title Enji had chosen himself. But really, it was just a cover for what his business really was – stealing, selling ninja secrets to the highest bidder, obtaining weapons, and any other black-market trades he could get his hands on. Well almost anything.

Jaki had been unique, had traded in live merchandise, or at least that’s how he always used to call it. He could pull off because he was so damn charming, could look you right in the face and convince you to come to his market, see the wares he had available. 

Jaki mostly catered to men like Enji. Enji and Gato and Joru and all the rest of them, corrupt non-ninjas who did whatever sleazy thing they wanted to get power in a ninja-run world. But Jaki also attracted ninjas and non-ninjas alike, regular people and the powerful ones. Because when it comes down to it, Jaki had it right, live merchandise was the best. It satisfied a human need. After all, there’s no better business than a whore house.

But Enji had never thought of Genn as a whore. He knew, from a practical standpoint, that she was getting paid to service him. But it had been so much more than sex. The way she would listen to him, the way she would look at him, the way she would giggle and blush when he called her beautiful. He had asked her to run away with him multiple times, and every time she said no, and every time he wanted her more.

But then Jaki’s had burned down, almost five years ago now. No one knew what happened, but word about it’s burning spread in the same way word about Jaki’s had always spread – under the cover of dark, in the corners of alleys, in the places where blood and sex and drugs and lies went to mingle. The entire place was ashes, Jaki’s blackened bones found within the rubbish. And every single piece of merchandise missing without a trace of where they went.

There hadn’t been a day that Enji hadn’t thought about Genn since then. And then this, this horrible fucking news. He had found Genn and had found the ways her life had changed in the last five years. He needed to stop that.

So, he found a couple willing recruits. That was where businessmen like Enji got their protection detail, their search teams, their assassins, and everything in between. There are always leftovers out in the world, ninja from broken villages and clans and treaties or non-ninja whose homes were ravaged by ninja wars. The world was full of those left behind, those forgotten in the great tides of turning time and ninja politics. And they were always willing to fight, for whatever scraps you gave them.

Enji was in the Land of Hot Water again. This used to be his stomping ground, but then Yugakure got too strong, was breathing down his neck too much, so he moved his business further north, to the Land of Frost. It made trade with his biggest partner, Gato, in the Land of Whirlpools, harder, but he managed. It didn’t matter how long it had been though, he still knew this land like the back of his hands.

“It’s time,” he said, looking at his crew. They weren’t a great bunch, he hadn’t had much time and couldn’t use his normal goons, they’d perceive him as weak for doing some so personal. A couple of half-trained ninja and a scrappy non-ninja, a kid with an impeccable aim on a bow and arrow. Enji had dubbed him the leader, even though the kid couldn’t seem to care less about this idea.

None of them roused at his order, “I said it’s time you fucks!”

They all lifted then, knowing their paychecks depended on it. The kid was the last to rise, giving Enji an enthusiastic glance.

“They should be crossing through the ravine now, Shotoku, take the team and ambush them from above,” Enji said, a sadistic grin spreading across his face, “It’s the perfect place, the only way out it from above, which you’ll block.”

“Told you it’s just Sho, old man,” the boy bit back to him.

Enji huffed, “I don’t give a damn what you want to be called. I’m paying you to retrieve that package by any means possible, now get moving!”

Shotoku rolled his eyes at Enji, but corralled the others and they ran off into the woods, heading in the direction of the ravine, where if Enji and all of his connections’ intel was correct, a rookie squad from Konoha would be, trying to deliver a package that would change Genn’s life forever.

It should be more than easy enough to stop them.

* * *

“The town where we’re delivering this package is just beyond this ravine, it will be quicker to cut through it, instead of around it,” Asuma said, without looking at the map. Like any good ninja, he had memorized their route before they even left the village.

Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji all gave something like a nod in return and followed Asuma down the steep path into the ravine. It had been like this for all three days they had traveled so far, a tension between the three that Asuma had never seen before. It was annoying, really. He had vouched so much for them, for them to all have this experience, their first C-rank mission, and yet they were acting like it was nothing.

To be fair, Asuma had come to know his students quite well in the last few months of working with them, but he couldn’t read their minds, couldn’t know about the argument that happened the night before they left.

Ino was excited for their first mission. Thrilled by everything they had seen. As they passed the boundaries from the Land of Fire to the Land of Hot Water, the landscape had changed, moving from woods and greenery to sparser trees and rocky cliffs and scattered pools of steaming water. Like most young ninja, Ino had never left the village she was born into, and all of this was thrilling her, everything she was seeing, the potential of meeting other ninjas, of getting to do something that mattered. If things were normal, Ino would be letting this excitement out, would be talking about everything they encountered.

Ino didn’t want to admit it to herself, but she really liked working with Shikamaru and Chouji. Something about working with them, over the last few months, it just made sense to her on some deeper level that her young mind could not yet really convey. And maybe it was the legacy of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation or maybe it was something else, she didn’t know. And yeah, both of the guys annoyed her in equal measures, but there was a fun with it too. She liked getting to nag Chouji about his eating habits or roll her eyes when Shikamaru made an offhand comment about women. There was a camaraderie there that she never expected to have when Instructor Iruka first announced their teammates.

But over the last few missions, Shikamaru had been pulling back in a big way, and it felt like the dynamic they had, the one that had buzzed around them for their first few weeks of working together, like it was going away.

Much like Ino. Chouji was in awe of everything they were encountering. The Land of Hot Water wasn’t far, it was one of the closest lands surrounding the Land of Fire, but it made Chouji feel like he had never felt before. Chouji was a big guy, but for the first time in his life, he felt small. Small like he was only just realizing the world was so much bigger than the Leaf Village and this was the first step in getting to explore so much more of it.

And he had been really looking forward to this, his first mission with his teammates. He and Shikamaru had been friends forever, had hung with each other outside of the academy, had bonded long before they became teammates. And that bond only felt stronger, felt more important, after they became teammates, after they learned about the Ino-Shika-Cho formation. And Ino wasn’t bad either, a combination of sweet and nagging, with an attitude that Chouji thought was fun to rile up. He was happy with his teammates, happy with the missions they had done, happy that Asuma cared about them enough to secure them a C-rank mission.

But he had no idea how deeply unhappy Shikamaru was. To him, it made sense that Shikamaru was their team leader. He was a smart and genuinely good guy. But Shikamaru had been acting so differently lately, had been acting like it was a burden to be around him. Chouji was hurt about what he had said the other night and couldn’t figure out a way to get around those feelings.

For the most part, Shikamaru wasn’t thinking too deeply about what he had said to his teammates, tried no to think about any of the conversations he had been having over the last few days, with his Dad, or his teammates, or with Asuma, the secret that started the night before. It was all too much trouble. Everything, always, was too much trouble.

So, they walked along in silence, each member of Team 10 caught up in the own heads. Until they weren’t anymore.

Asuma sense them first, the light sounds of someone moving above them. He turned around, his stance concrete, a kunai in his hands. His students noticed him and then noticed the sound, taking their own stances. But before anyone really had time to prepare, the ninjas were on them.

One ninja landed in front of Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji, who turned with their backs to each other, each of them facing outward. The guy who landed in front of them was big and burly, with a menacing look on his face.

“Easy pickings,” he said and before any of the genin could see it, the ninja whipped out a chain, each notch with an attached shuriken. He whipped the chain around them, taking advantage of their defensive formation, and pulling them tighter together, their bodies hitting each other. They all screamed as the chain wrapped around them, as the shuriken bit into their skin, gripping them and squeezing them tighter.

“No!” Chouji yelled and let his chakra flow, increased his size by two, the rapid growth of his girth breaking the chain and freeing him and his teammates. They all quickly recovered, taking fighting stances and facing their opponent.

Chouji increased the size of his fists, trying to reach out to grip the guy, but he was too quick, jumping away. Ino threw some kunai toward him, hoping to catch the tail of his coat, to lock him down and keep him still so she could take over his mind. Shikamaru was cursing the overcast sky, knew his shadows would be useless, so he pushed toward the guy head on, throwing hits and kicks, which landed and were blocked in equal measures. But then the guy got a good punch of Shikamaru, throwing him back. Ino and Chouji were surprised, and the ninja they were facing used that surprise to kick them back too, laughing at how easily they fell back. They were all back up in a second, but they attacked in the same style, all waging their own individual strategies, not doing what the formation was best designed to do—working together.

Beside them, Asuma was fighting the other ninja who had surprised them. The guy was fast but not very strong, Asuma was stopping, knocking off, and dodging his hits easily, but it was hard to land his own hit. He was distracted, could see out of the corner of his eye, the way his students were struggling, but didn’t want to engage yet, needed to finish off this guy before he rescued his students. All he needed was one good hit, something that would knock him out without expelling too much chakra.

Above them, Sho watched. He had told the other two, whose names he didn’t know or care to remember, to distract them, had said he just needed a moment to identify the leader, to take whoever it was out. Obviously, the three young ninja who were failing to work together weren’t leadership material, but the other guy, the one who was going hand in hand without breaking a sweat, was the leader. The fight had only been going on for a few minutes, but Sho knew that he had mere moments until that guy, the obvious leader, took both of those ninjas out. He lifted his bow, took aim, and released.

Asuma was about to land a fatal blow on the dude, when he felt it, a pinch at his neck, short and swift. It was the only thing he felt, really, before it all went black.

“Now!” Sho shouted from above. The two ninjas were quick to listen to him, dropping their fights, grabbing the guy he had just knocked out, and jumping up the ravine.

They did all of this quickly, one second fighting and the next second moving, Asuma in their arms. Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji barely had time to realize what happening before they watched Asuma’s body being dragged over the edges of the ravine.

“Come on,” Shikamaru shouted, jumping up the sides of the ravine. Ino and Chouji followed, all of them landing in the sparse forest above them. But they saw no sign of the ninja or the other guy, the one who had appeared out of no where with a bow and arrow. They ran through the woods, each of them looking for signs, but seeing nothing.

It was too late, Asuma was gone.

* * *

Asuma couldn’t open his eyes, they felt glued shut, tight and heavy. But he concentrated, and after a moment, could open them. It was then that he felt everything else, the stinging pain on the side of his neck, the awkward positioning of his arms and legs, the soreness in his side. His head, like his eyes, felt foggy and heavy. But the pain was all secondary, he needed to figure out where he was at. He looked around. The place was dark and humid, a dank smell hung in the air. He was positioned so that he was sitting up, against a wall, it seemed. He tried to move but realized he couldn’t. His arms were pinned to his side, held down with what he felt like were chains. And his legs, splayed at in front of him, were equally chained.

His entire body felt heavy, like even if he wasn’t chained, he probably couldn’t move very much. He wiggled around a little, as much as the chains would allow, tried to get a sense of the dark space he was in, when we heard it, the striking of a match.

A sphere of the darkness lit up, the face of a boy flickering in the darkness. He moved the flame, shifting it past Asuma and into a gas lamp, its dull reach casting a slightly bigger sphere of light. Asuma shifted some more, trying to get a sense of what was around him, trying to prepare himself for whatever this kid would do to him, but he still felt so heavy, so out of it.

“We’re in a cellar, just in case you’re wondering,” the kid said, his voice deeper than Asuma expected. He didn’t look like much, older than Asuma’s own students for sure, but definitely not a man yet. He had a sorta half-starved look, a dark flush of shaggy brown hair, hazel eyes that looked too serious for someone so young.

When Asuma didn’t respond to him, he spoke again, “I hit you with a mild sedative, dipped my arrow in it. You’re gonna feel shitty for a while, but I didn’t need to hit you to make you effective. You have a nick on the neck.”

Asuma gave the kid a curious look, and finally spoke, his voice thick with the sedative’s effects, “I didn’t see you in the ravine.”

He was speaking truthfully, knew that this face hadn’t been on in the fray.

“I was above, hiding at the top of the ravine,” the boy said, “that was my plan. They’d distract everyone while I identified who was most likely to have the package and take him out. Those other three could barely stand their ground, it’s obvious you were the leader.”

“But you didn’t take me out,” Asuma said, placing emphasis on the final three words, “you just hit me with a sedative.”

The boy shrugged his shoulders, “I’m not a fan of killing, doesn’t matter, the boss still got his package.”

“Most ninjas are comfortable with killing,” Asuma said. His head was too foggy to articulate exactly what he was trying to do, but he figured that if he kept the kid talking, that he’d get some more information, that he’d figure out where exactly this cellar was at, figure out where his students were.

“Well I’m not a ninja,” the boy said plainly, “I’m just good with my hands, and I can shoot an arrow better than anyone I’ve ever met.”

“But the others, they were ninjas…” Asuma said, waiting for him to finish the sentence.

“Yeah.”

“But it was your plan, the one that successfully kidnapped me?”

“Yeah, like I told you.”

“Hmm,” Asuma said, a little impressed, “not a lot of ninjas are willing to listen to non-ninjas unless there is money or something else to gain behind it. Why’d they listen to you?”

“Because the guy who is paying them told them to listen to me,” the kid said, his voice sounded like he was exhausted. There was a certain tenor in that exhaustion that sounded familiar to Asuma.

“And who is paying them? And you, I presume?” Asuma asked, pushing for the information he really needed.

The kid gave him a look then, one that felt like he was rolling his eyes at him without actually rolling his eyes, “Look I’m not an idiot, I know you’re trying to get information out of me, but I’ve already done the job I was hired for. Can you just stop being so damn slow and just ask me the questions you want to ask instead of being so troublesome?”

And that’s when he realized why this kid seemed familiar. He had never seen him before, but the dullness and exhaustion in his voice, the way he held himself like he didn’t care, the way he complained about things being troublesome – it felt just like Shikamaru. And the straightforwardness too, there was something to it. The ‘let’s get this over with’ attitude, it was all Shikamaru. It reminded Asuma of the most important question he needed to ask.

“Why are they? The other three ninjas I was with?”

“They all got away, scattered into the woods. No one went after them, so they’re probably safe for now,” the kid said.

Asuma felt relief wash over him. They were safe for now, and as soon as he had enough info and regained his energy, he could get out of this mess and find them.

“What’s your name?” he asked, always more comfortable with the enemy’s name in his mouth than not knowing who he was. And as open as this kid was, he had still knocked him out with a sedative and chained him in a cellar, he was still the enemy.

“That’s really a burning question on your mind?” he asked, his voice just edging with sarcasm. Asuma nodded at him.

“Shotoku, but people call me Sho,” he said lightly.

“Okay, Sho,” Asuma said, feeling more and more of the heaviness leave his body the longer the conversation went on, “I’ll ask you again, who paid those ninjas to listen to you? Who’s behind this attack?”

“His name is Enji, I don’t know much beyond that,” Sho said, “A few days ago he popped out of nowhere, said he had heard I was a good shot, and told me he’d pay me a ridiculous amount to help him take a package for some rookie ninja in a few days.”

This both surprised and didn’t surprise Asuma. Enji was a known business tycoon, one of many across the world. They had their hands in all kinds of seedy business and often used ninja to do their grunt work. Hidden Villages usually didn’t mess with them unless they disrupted a mission. Enji used to work the Land of Hot Water, but he had abandoned it nearly ten years ago, this was known. It didn’t make sense that he was back here now, but it had been the reason for the Hokage’s worry. Damn, his Dad really loved to be right.

“Did he say why he wanted the package?” Asuma asked, happy with Sho’s candor. He suspected that Sho didn’t like being hired help for people like Enji. He wasn’t a ninja and he didn’t like killing, and both of those things were pretty much required to work for these types.

“Didn’t say,” Sho said, shrugging his shoulders again, “But you don’t really ask questions when someone offers you that much money.”

Suddenly there was a loud banging, coming from somewhere beyond where the light of the gaslight shone, like the hitting a wooden door. And then muffled yelling, “The box was empty, Enji’s pissed! He wants you to bring him up!”

For a second, Sho and Asuma listened to the noise and made no movement. There was a tiny part of him that was hoping this kid wouldn’t listen. He had but too lax about throwing information Asuma’s way. There was no way he was that invested in what Enji wanted.

But then Sho was turning to him and Asuma felt a quick touch at his neck, a sudden heaviness returning to him.

“Sorry, job’s not done yet,” he heard Sho mumble as everything fell dark.

* * *

Eventually, Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji had finally stopped searching long enough to panic about what had just happened. Ino was shaking, Chouji was anxiously munching on chips, and Shikamaru was pacing back and forth, unsure whether now was the right time to tell his teammates about what had happened last night.

As they were setting up camp the night before, Asuma had pulled Shikamaru aside, to come help find firewood. They already had enough supplies, but Shikamaru was still annoyed by Ino and Chouji, had been for all three days of their travel so far.

“So, what’s up with you guys?” Asuma had asked when they were out of hearing distance.

“Nothing,” Shikamaru said mildly.

“I know we’re still learning to work together as a team, but you, Ino, and Chouji have a natural synch. I saw it from the first day I tested you and have seen it on every mission ever since,” Asuma said. It was true. After he passed them, Asuma had had conversations with all their fathers, had learned a lot about the Ino-Shika-Cho legacy, had seen the precise way that teamwork happened, even on missions as simple as running errands. It had been thrilling to see, and over the last few months, he had been learning more and more, just how much he wanted to foster that teamwork.

Neither of them picked up wood, knowing it was just a ploy, “But all of you are off during this mission.”

Shikamaru had wanted to retort that nothing had happened on this mission, that all they had done was walk through the woods, mostly in silence, for three days, but he figured it would be easier to have whatever conversation Asuma was trying to have with him done quickly.

“Yeah, we had an argument the night before the mission, it’s no big deal.”

“What did you argue about?” 

Shikamaru groaned, “Stupid stuff, about being a ninja, about who’s the leader of the team.”

“That doesn’t seem like stupid stuff, that actually seems like an important conversation that teammates should be having,” Asuma said. He didn’t want to admit, and he never would, but Shikamaru was his favorite student. The kid was intelligent and caring in a multitude of ways. Shikamaru was the only one who could get Chouji and Ino to stop bickering, who could make Chouji feel better on his gloomy days, who could redirect Ino’s energy so that their missions were completed more efficiently. The only issue was that Shikamaru did it all of it like it didn’t matter, like it was chore to do anything besides exist. Asuma had let him get away with it so far, but he knew that Shikamaru was eventually going to need an attitude adjustment.

“Yeah sure, but not when you’re the one who they decide is the leader,” Shikamaru said sharply, “Not when you know everything is going to keep being exhausting no matter what.”

“You really think your teammates respecting and admiring you enough to consider you their leader is exhausting?”

Shikamaru was annoyed by what Asuma was implying, annoyed by what was underneath his words, that Shikamaru was being ungrateful, that he should stop being so mopey about a life he should be perfectly content with. At least, that’s what Shikamaru felt like Asuma was implying. But he was too tired to argue with that.

“I don’t know,” he said darkly.

Just then, Fate, who was just as bothered by Shikamaru’s reluctance as Asuma, pushed an idea in Asuma’s direction.

“Give me your dummy,” Asuma said.

“What?”

“Your dummy, give it to me now,” Asuma said, gesturing toward Shikamaru’s vest. On any delivery mission, all ninjas carried dummies. They were packages or scrolls disguised to look like the real thing. The strongest ninja on the team, in this case Asuma, always took the real thing, while everyone else on a team had dummies, used to confuse enemies.

Shikamaru reached into his jacket, pulled out the small box. Asuma did the same, and then traded them, giving Shikamaru the real package, the thing they were meant to protect.

“What—” Shikamaru began but Asuma cut him off.

“If you don’t know if you want to be leader, then here’s how you’ll figure it out,” Asuma explained, pocketing the dummy in his own vest.

“But…” Shikamaru said, trailing off. The package in his hand was just like the dummy, but it felt much heavier to him.

“But it’s the leaders’ job to protect the main asset. And that’s you now,” Asuma said, and then he smiled at Shikmaru, “And don’t worry, I won’t tell Ino or Chouji, a good leader knows when to take his place.”

And with that, Asuma headed back to camp. Shikamaru watched him for a moment, not sure if he was more bothered or okay. On one hand, Asuma was putting a burden of responsibility on him that he wasn’t sure that he wanted. But on the other hand, he hadn’t made Shikamaru go through all the trouble of talking about it and deciding it. Asuma decided it for him, which, somehow, made Shikamaru feel a little better about it.

He had pocketed the package and followed Asuma back to camp.

But now it was real. Now they had been attacked, they were all hurt, if lightly, and Asuma had been kidnapped. None of them had been prepared in the moment and they had been so absolutely sloppy. And if those ninjas, if they were after the package, and they found the dummy on Asuma, there is no idea what they would do.

Shikamaru had expected to be at his wit’s end, had expected to struggle and moan and feel torn between his laziness and whether he could do it, whether he could be the leader in this moment. But none of that went through his head, instead, all he thought was that they needed to save Iruka.

“Guys, I have to tell you something,” Shikamaru said, reaching to his jacket and pulling out the real package. Both looked at him expectantly.

“Asuma doesn’t have package, he took my dummy last night. This is really it,” Shikamaru said, giving them a glance, and then putting it back in his pocket, paranoid now about who could be around.

“So, does this mean we finish the mission, deliver it without him?” Chouji said, confused by how this information would matter, confused by what Shikamaru was implying.

“No, no,” Shikamaru said, knowing that what he said next wasn’t something a leader would say at all, “I don’t really care about the mission anymore.”

Ino was annoyed, had hoped that this, of all things, would be something to nudge Shikamaru in the direction of caring, “Well that’s nothing new.”

Shikamaru let out a sigh. Of course, after that argument before they left the village, they didn’t expect him to be invested in this, to care that their Instructor had been taken. They were getting it all wrong.

“You don’t get it,” Shikamaru said, exasperated, “I don’t care about the mission because I care about Asuma more. We need to get him back, and we have the leverage with this. We can trade the package for Asuma…or at least that’s what we make them think. We use it as bait, tell them we’re willing to make a trade, but just it was a distraction while we help Asuma escape and then take him and the package and run.”

As Shikamaru spoke he could see the outlines of a plan taking place in his head, each move materializing after the next. He felt the thrill of it grow in him.

“There’s only three of them. The two ninja who attacked us in the ravine and they guy who shot at Asuma from above. They had the jump on us before but this time that will be us. We’ll go back to the ravine, track them to wherever they’re camped, and then pretend to negotiate.”

Ino and Chouji were both surprised. Lately, Shikamaru’s apathetic attitude had reached a new low, had been what pushed them both to call him out the other night. But this felt truer to them, more like the teammate they wanted.

But Ino was still nervous about one thing, “Do you think Asuma is okay?”

“The arrow didn’t pierce him,” Shikamaru said, remembering the moment he saw it fly from above, “It looked like it just nicked him.”

“But he dropped as soon as it hit him Shikamaru,” Chouji said, his own doubts creeping in.

But there was something inside of Shikamaru, something that told him Asuma was okay, that he had to be okay. Shikamaru didn’t know enough to recognize this feeling as hope but he still answered, “This plan will only work if we believe Asuma is okay.”

And somehow, Shikamaru’s hope bled into Ino and Chouji. Just like he had led them to bad moods back in the Village, he led them to hope now. Even more so, as they started working on a plan.

They didn’t know what to expect, if there were more ninjas, if they would find them in a camp or nearby town or what, so they worked with what they knew. Two short range ninja fighters whose moves they had already seen. A long-range fighter with a bow and arrow. Their plan was rough and hasty, but it was the best that they had - track the ninjas from the ravine, find them and approach them with caution. Shikamaru would be the one to start negotiations, with whoever was the obvious leader. If they weren’t able to negotiate peacefully, Chouji and Shikamaru could lock them in place. Meanwhile, Ino would find and take over the mind of whoever was guarding Asuma, would set him free. It was a rough plan, a puzzle that was missing a lot of pieces, but it was what they had to work with.

And while they were making it, they all felt it, a familiar tug, like finding a path they had accidentally strayed from. Like Fate was weaving them back together. 

* * *

Asuma heard voices before he could open his eyes.

“Get him the fuck up, Shotoku,” a gruff voice yelled.

“It’s Sho,” a dull voice replied, clearly annoyed by the first speaker, “I barely gave him any sedative this time, just a drop in his open wound, give it another minute or two.”

Part of Asuma wanted to keep his eyes closed, the part of him effected by the sedative. But he had already gone through this part before. He knew everything would feel heavy, his eyes and arms, and legs all useless. Doubly useless, he thought, because he could still feel the chains around him, this time his arms behind his back, his ankles together, in standing position. After another minute, just like Sho had said, he felt his eyes open.

He quickly took in the scene. It looked like they were in some type of abandoned house, an open room with pain peeling off the walls, trash spread across the floor, one door to the right leading into what looked like a kitchen, and another door off the side, leading to what looked like a rotten set of steps. That must be the cellar he was in before. A window behind a moldy set of curtains. That could be his ticket out of here, one he recovered his senses.

And he saw more. A man in front of him, sitting on the center of a rough couch, two ninjas on either side of him on the armrests. The one Asuma had been fighting earlier and the one his students had been fighting. Sho was standing beside him, keeping him up. With the chains wrapped so tightly around his legs and the sedative still making his body feel as heavy as stone, Sho was holding him, a grip on Asuma’s shoulders and back to keep him from falling.

Asuma wasn’t able to take in a lot of details, but it was the best his foggy mind could currently do.

“What is this shit?” the man on the couch said roughly, the dummy package, open and empty, at his feet. This must be Enji, Asuma thought. He wasn’t much to look at. A small man in a suit, gray in his hair and rough wrinkles on his face. Asuma had only encountered a few corrupt businessmen during his ninja missions, and they were always like this, small men with big egos and voices, ready to boss around who ever was willing to take their scraps.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Asuma said, his tongue heavy, his voice feeling like it was filled with cotton.

“Oh, don’t give me that shit, you know what I’m talking about,” Enji said coldly, “Where’s the ring? Those kids fucking have it?”

Asuma raised his eyebrow at this, or at least tried to, not really sure how much control of his body he had.

“What do you mean, ring?” Asuma asked. He was good at this type of light interrogation. Play dumb and ask questions, it was always easier to get information

“The ring you’re delivering,” Enji said, “Don’t tell me you’re delivering a package without taking a peek, or are you ninja really that obedient?”

“Seems to me like ninja being obedient is exactly how you get your work done,” Asuma said, trying to nod to the ninjas that flanked Enji’s side. Meanwhile, as the fog begin to lift, he tried to take in more details about the place, tried to think of a route of escape, wondered about his students. If Shikamaru continued with the mission or if…

He couldn’t decide if he wanted his students coming back for him or not. Didn’t know how this situation would play out if they threw themselves in it.

“Hmm,” Enji huffed, “That doesn’t answer my question, where’s the fucking ring?”

“Don’t know,” Asuma said, that much the truth. He didn’t know where Shikamaru currently was and presumably, the package, which held a ring apparently, was still with him.

Enji didn’t have the patience for this, a snotty fucking ninja. He was pissed enough that his hired hands had brought him an empty package. Pissed that they had thought it was okay to leave the other ninjas behind, even if they were rookies. Pissed that Sho had brought back a live body instead of a dead one. But maybe that latter part was good, at least he would have a mouth to get information out of. Shotoku could wrangle the information out of this guy, he was sure. He knew he could send the others after the three ninjas that were left behind, but he also knew what village ninjas were like – piteously good and annoyingly loyal. They would surely come back for this guy. It would be better to keep them here, for protection. And either those other ninjas would have the package or this guy would squeal. Either way, Enji would get what he wanted.

“Oh, I’m sure you know, you just need a little convincing,” Enji said, a slick grin on his face, “Shotoku, make him talk.”

Sho let out a deep resigned sigh, and opened his mouth, “Sure.”

Then Asuma felt himself being pulled by his chained hands away from the scene. He tried to resist, but his body still felt heavy and weak, like something he could barely control or move. Sho was dragging him back to the cellar, down musty stairs and into the dark, out of sight of any potential escapes. Sho threw him to the ground when they reached the bottom.

“This is fucking bullshit,” Sho said, annoyed. He looked at the guy in front of him, a ninja who was clearly skilled but still too drowsy from the sedative. He didn’t seem like that bad of a dude, wasn’t someone he cared about hurting more. In fact, Sho cared so little about this whole charade. He just needed the money, enough to keep in him in rooms and food until he made it to the Land of Keys, to the place that woman had told him about, to the place where he could have a future. He didn’t want to have to torture this guy to get there.

“Sorry that was so rough, I just had to make it look like I was gonna do something,” Sho said, looking as the guy seemed to recover his senses a little bit, “Can you just yell occasionally or something to make it sound like I’m torturing you?”

Asuma was pleased to hear Sho wasn’t going to listen to Enji’s orders, and thought maybe he could get him talking again, could get more info out of him.

“I will if you tell me why this ring is so important to Enji,” Asuma said, his mouth still feeling grainy, his body still heavy and immovable.

“It’s fucking stupid,” Sho said, “He was talking about it before you got up the second time. It’s an engagement ring. I guess Enji used to bang the chick or whatever, because he wanted us to get the ring, stop the engagement. I can’t believe I’m letting the chump pay me for this.”

Asuma couldn’t help but chuckle then. At how ridiculous this was, about being captured and held hostage and would be tortured over an engagement ring. No wonder the Hokage had told him the package’s contents were confidential. But then he remembered Sho was supposed to be torturing him, he let his laugh turn into a strangled shout.

Sho was taken aback by the sudden transformation of laughter to screaming, “What the fuck man?”

Asuma gave him a soft smile, “You said to be convincing.”

Sho rolled his eyes at the guy, “Yeah, thanks for that.”

“So,” Asuma started, “You don’t care about the engagement ring and you’re not really into following Enji’s orders, but you obviously want the money he’s offering you, what for?”

Sho looked at the guy in front of him. It was strange to him that this guy was asking him personal questions, but he couldn’t pretend to understand ninjas that much. He had never really interacted with him, having grown up in a town of non-ninjas. He only saw them in passing here and there, heard about their conflicts and wars from afar, hadn’t thought too hard about them until he had been forced to work with them over the past few days. And if the two other guys Enji had hired were an example of what ninjas were like, there wasn’t a high bar. But this guy seemed a little different, like he was something more than a ruthless hand for higher. And he had gotten straight to the point when Sho had asked him to stop bullshitting earlier, so he didn’t mind being honest with him.

“I need money to get the Land of Keys,” Sho answered after a few moments of silence.

“What’s there?”

“I’m not fully sure,” Sho admitted, “But there’s a place, a place I can go to be safe. A place for people like me. This woman, she told me about it. Told me I’d be welcome anytime, told me about the work they’re doing.”

When Sho spoke about this place, Asuma noticed it was the first time, his voice didn’t sound bored or exhausted, instead there was a tinge of hope in his words. But the answer had been so vague, there was so much Asuma was curious about. Curious enough to be distracted from the fact that he was trapped in a cellar, on a botched mission.

“What do you mean people like you?”

Sho felt like his stomach was pulling into a tight fist, felt the twisting and wrenching of it. He was vague for a reason. He didn’t mind being honest with this man, but he couldn’t be that honest. He had only ever been honest with one other person, with Kira, who had promised him a better, safer place. A place where none of his past would haunt him, where he could help others. He felt so stupid; he should have taken her up on her offer to travel there quickly, to take her shortcut. But he had wanted to finish things first, had wanted it to feel final before he stepped into a new life. Nothing had gone the way he planned though, and somehow, he ended up here, a last desperate hope to get the money he needed to make the trip.

“I don’t mean anything by that,” Sho said, knowing the guy probably could see through his lies.

“And you trust her, this woman who told you about the place?” Asuma asked, figuring that he had pushed Sho’s honesty too far, shouldn’t push it more than he needed to.

Sho smiled then, the first one that Asuma saw on his face. In that smile, you could see both how young and old he looked at the same time, “You know it’s weird, we only spent a day together, and not in a romantic way if that’s what you’re thinking, but I think I trust her more than most people I’ve met in my life. Her name was Kira. She…she understood parts of me. And this place, it isn’t the type of place you just make up.”

Asuma was surprised, he had only ever known one person named Kira. And she too, had been someone that he, and everyone else who met her, felt like they could trust without reason. But it couldn’t be the same Kira, could it?

Before Asuma could ask another question, they both heard it, the sound of footsteps upstairs, the muffled sounds of Enji’s booming voice, the sound of laughter. Sho raised his eyebrows at Asuma and then walked up the cellar stairs slowly, cracking the door to look into the living room.

It was the other three ninjas from the ravine, all of them younger looking up close. And in one of their hands was a small package, identical to the empty box they had retrieved earlier. Seeing it, Sho felt a charge go through him. He didn’t know who this engagement ring was meant for, but he knew that Enji probably didn’t have the right to stop it from happening. He knew that for the last week that he had worked for Enji, he had seen nothing from him except for cruelty. He had made Sho into something he didn’t feel like he was, grumpy and bitter and tired about everything that he had to do. And this guy in the basement, he was the first person who had shown any kindness or interest in Sho since meeting Kira six weeks before. So, fuck the money, Sho didn’t care anymore, he would make it to the Land of Keys without it.

He walked slowly down the stairs, and as he did, he heard the sounds of talking turn into fighting, the sound of breaking glass, the sound of someone being thrown into the walls. As soon as his feet hit the ground he rushed toward his bag.

“What’s going on?” Asuma asked, eyes frantic.

Sho ignored him, knew they didn’t have time. There was a louder crash from above. Sho found the vial he was looking for, tiny and glass, like all the others he kept in his bag. He reached around, grabbed an arrow from his holster, dipped the very tip of it in the liquid of the bottle and sealed it back up. Without a word, he turned back to Asuma, pulled the key out of his pocket to undo his chains. Asuma felt the relief of them falling away from his body as soon as Sho undid them but he still could barely move.

“The other ninja who were with you are upstairs,” Sho said as they heard another crash. He held up the dipped arrow, “This arrow has a mixture in it like adrenaline. It should wake your body up from the sedative, both only temporarily. Do you trust me?”

Asuma nodded his head. Then Sho lifted the arrow and plunged it into his thigh. 

* * *

Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji had found the place in just over an hour. It had surprised them how easy it was, how quickly they could accomplish something when they worked together.

The trail led them to an old abandoned house, which looked daunting and out of place. Through the window, they saw the two ninjas that had attacked them in the ravine and someone else, an older man in a suit. There was no sign of the other one, the person who had shot Asuma. They hadn’t planned for these circumstances, but that didn’t matter to any of them. Saving Asuma was more important. And besides, there was an energy in the air. Something that stirred inside of all of them, something that made them feel confident about what they were going to try to pull off. Maybe it was motivation to save their teacher, maybe it was reconciling after their fight, or maybe it was just Fate weaving all her strands in the right direction.

Shikamaru, most of all, felt the rightness of this moment, the way it felt like the first moment, in a long time, that mattered. Which is why he didn’t hesitate to push open the door, look the two ninjas and older man in the eye and tell him that they were here to negotiate.

Ino and Chouji flanked him on either side, taking the same formation they had earlier in the ravine. The two ninjas had jumped up when they first stumbled in, the had paused when the old man gestured at them to stop.

“Negotiate, huh,” the old guy said, “And what gives you the power to negotiate?”

“Because we have what you want,” Shikamaru said, pulling out the package, the real one and holding it tightly in his hand, “Give us Asuma and we give you this.”

The old guy snickered, “Or I could just take it from you.”

And as he said this, the two ninjas on either side of him jumped into action. But Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji had expected this, had known managing a negotiation was a small possibility. And they knew what to do now.

The ninja with the shuriken chain launched it at them from the front. All three of them dodged it, knowing what to expect this time. As they landed, the other ninja threw a set of kunai in their direction. Ino caught them and threw them back toward him. Most of them missed, but one of them nicked the guy’s check. Beside her, Chouji and Shikamaru were trying to land hits on the other ninja, but he was whipping the chain wildly around.

“Chouji, now!” Shikamaru yelled. Chouji nodded and jumped toward the window. The guy’s eyes followed him, along with his weapons. Chouji made a few jumps to dodge them, and then landed where he meant to, in front of the window. He enlarged his fist and slammed into the window, ripping off the curtain and breaking the glass in one hit. A stream of sunlight poured into the dank old place and on the ground, a shadow snuck itself around the feet of the ninja with the shuriken chain, his motions halting when he realized what was happening. He tried to jerk away but couldn’t move.

The shadow led back to Shikamaru, who was kneeling, his hands formed into the shape of the justu, “Ino!”

“I’m trying!” she yelled as she dodged more weapons from the ninja in front of her. She flipped backwards to narrowly avoid getting hit by the ninja’s knife. The ninja followed her path, right into another shadow, two strands creeping out from Shikamaru now.

Both ninjas were trapped by their feet, but they could still use their hands. They raged, throwing out all the weapons they had on them. Chouji and Ino moved through the air, dodging the weapons, and trying to catch those that went after Shikamaru.

Sweat poured down Shikamaru’s face. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold unto the jutsu. Knew it would only take a stray cloud to disperse his shadows.

Meanwhile, Enji was screaming, yelling at the idiotic ninja to take these children out, but made no moves to join the fray himself. Businessmen didn’t get their hands dirty.

“The chain! Get the chain,” Shikamaru yelled in teammates direction. Instantly, they knew what he meant, an unspoken connection that none of them could explain. The ninja with the chain had dropped it in surprise when Shikamaru’s shadow had trapped him. Chouji and Ino picked it up, whipped it around and threw it around the two ninjas, wrapping it tight. As soon as they did, Shikamaru dropped his jutsu, grabbed the edge of the chain with his teammates and pulled, all three of their hands pulling and trapping the two ninjas, just like they had been trapped in the ravine earlier.

Then, out of nowhere, two kunai flew out of nowhere, each of them hitting deep into the chained-up ninjas, killing them instantly. Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji looked back to see Asuma standing in a doorway on the other side of the room, sweat dripping down his smiling face. And then behind him they saw the other one, the guy with the bows and arrow.

“Asuma, look out!” Shikamaru shouted as he saw the guy draw an arrow. But instead of flying toward Asuma, instead of flying toward them, it flew to the front of the room, hitting Enji square in the head and dropping him to the floor.

Asuma looked at Sho, “Thought you didn’t like killing.”

Sho shrugged his shoulders, “Changed my mind.” 

* * *

Although there was still plenty of daylight when they cleared the scene, they made camp soon after. Asuma was sweating bullets, and he felt like shit, his body taking the mixed-up effects of a sedative and adrenaline so closely together. Sho assured him his body would balance out after 24 hours.

Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji didn’t know what to make of this guy, even after he had killed Enji. But Asuma seemed to trust him, and that was enough for all of them. They shared stories of what had happened in the few hours they separated, Asuma explaining who Enji was, how he recruited Sho, how Sho didn’t really want to be there. Sho, for the most part, remained quiet while Asuma recounted this. And his students explained to him what they did, how Shikamaru had corralled them into a plan, how he thought of all the strategies of their fight, how he seemed to know what they needed to do, and how they seemed to understand him without more than a few words.

The next morning, Sho said goodbye, off to find the place Kira had promised him, determined to make it no matter what, but never stooping as low as he had over the past week. Shikamaru and Asuma were the ones to see him off, Ino and Chouji still asleep.

“You know, he reminded me a lot of you, I think that’s why we connected,” Asuma said, after Sho had disappeared.

Shikamaru didn’t draw the connection, hadn’t even really talked to the guy in the few hours he had spent with them, “What do you mean?”

“Just that I think that Sho has a lot of potential, and that wherever he’s going, I hope he finds it,” Asuma said honestly. He had only been around Sho for a day, but he could see it there, buried and deep, in the same way he saw potential in Shikamaru.

Shikamaru made a noncommittal noise in response.

“And you’ll find yours too,” Asuma said, turning to head back to camp, “You did good.”

“Yeah, I guess I did,” Shikamaru said, a smile finally rising on his face.

* * *

After that, the mission was easy. They brought the package to the woman named Genn. Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji watched, in surprise, as she opened it right there on her doorstep. A ring and a note fell out. The woman read the note, slipped the ring on her finger, and burst into tears. Then she invited them in for tea.

Over tea, she thanked them and told them the story. About a man who loved her, about how they had been separated for a long time, about how the note said he was finally coming back to her, that he wanted to marry her. It wasn’t the whole story, of course, because the whole story was sordid and scary and complicated and these young strangers didn’t need that on their shoulders, they just needed to know that they had made her happy.

Chouji had thought her story was sweet, had thought the manju tea cakes she had served were even sweeter. Ino had thought her story was tragically romantic, had imagined herself within it, separated and then soon to be reunited with her love. Asuma didn’t think much about the story, but instead thought about the look on her face when she had first seen the ring, thought about what Kurenai’s face would look like if he gave her a ring. And Shikamaru, Shikamaru thought maybe this was it. On one hand, it annoyed him that the package had turned out to be some cheesy romantic note and engagement ring. But on the other hand, maybe this was what is was about, being a ninja, taking charge, making sure things happened. He didn’t know this woman, Genn, and he would never know her again beyond this interaction, but he knew that he had somehow had an impact on her life, just by making sure her engagement ring had been delivered safely. And that guy, Sho, a stranger they had just met (and would meet again, a few more times, only Shikamaru didn’t know that yet) but who Asuma had somehow made an impact on, who had saved them, and then had decided to take his own steps toward a new life. It was small, but Shikamaru thought, maybe it did matter.

It’s amazing how much we don’t realize our lives overlap with others – the smallest strands here and there. No one on Team 10 would ever meet Genn again, but their stories briefly overlapped with hers. One day, we’ll find Genn’s story hidden in the _Corners,_ a story about Genn and Enji, the man she will soon marry. A story about Jacki, the vile businessmen, and people you have not yet met but will come to know deeply. And Sho too, he wandered off to into the _Corners_ , to a place that will eventually be a central scene of our tale, to people you’ve only heard about in hints, and people who once knew Genn, and others who are still yet to come. We’ll get there.

It’s the nature of the fabric of reality, these overlapping tales, and in the smallest of ways, Shikmaru, as they made their journey back, was finally starting to understand his part in that. 

* * *

Asuma had only just returned to his apartment a few minutes earlier. He was still unpacking when he heard a knock at the door. Three light knocks, Kurenai.

He opened the door with a smile on his face. Kurenai couldn’t help smiling too, walked in and wrapped her arms around him.

After a moment, they broke apart and at the same time said, “We need to talk.”

Asuma had been thinking a lot about Genn, had been thinking about a fiancé who would go through enough trouble to hire a ninja guard for his engagement ring (and rightly so, with the trouble they ran into), and the way his father had teased them before the mission. He and Kurenai had been on and off (though mostly on, in the recent years) for nearly seven years. He couldn’t think of any reason why they shouldn’t get married.

But he also knew they were both practical people, who were neither overly romantic nor overly spontaneous. If they were going to get married, it would be a conversation before it was a reality. This is what Asuma wanted to talk about, but instead he said, “You go first.”

Kurenai handed him two keys. One was the key to her apartment, which she had given him just recently, and other was a key to his apartment, which he had given to her much sooner than she had relinquished hers. Asuma’s heart dropped.

“You’re not breaking up with me, are you?”

Kurenai laugh then, his favorite of her laughs, short and musical and breathy, “No, no. We just, you just…you can’t spend nights in my apartment anymore, it’s complicated.”

And then she told him about their mission to Nagi Island, about the strangeness of meeting and learning so much more about Itachi Uchiha’s ex, about getting attacked and the injuries she sustained, about finding out about Hinata, about Hiashi Hyuga’s demands, about her apartment’s couch, which now hosted a scared and sad twelve year old girl.

And then he told her about his mission, about the young non-ninja he had connected with, about the place that he ran off to, about the place that Kira might be connected to. But mostly, he told her about his students, how incredible they were, how he had pushed Shikamaru into a leadership role, how he had really shined through. What he didn’t tell her was the story of Genn and all that it had him thinking about them.

“When did we become such good people?” Kurenai asked when they were done. At that point, they were lying in his bed, the sun was setting. There had been lots of pauses between their mission stories.

“I’m pretty sure we’ve always been good people,” Asuma said with a confused grin.

“No, I just mean the kind of people who do this, who care about students so deeply we let them stay in our homes or push them into leadership roles in risky situations because we trust them,” Kurenai said, shifting so that she was sitting up, staring down at him.

“I think it’s part of the deal of being an instructor, caring about your students,” Asuma said, looking up at her.

“No, I mean, when did we become the people doing that for others, instead having people do it for us?”

“Oh,” Asuma said, with a sly grin on his face, “You mean the part where we grew up.”

“Yeah, that one,” Kurenai said, a bittersweet smile on her face.

Asuma knew that what Kurenai was referring to was larger for her than it was for him. After all, her reality was change rapidly in the last few months. She was just turned 23 years old, had only just become a Jounin and squad leader, and was suddenly in charge of a young girl’s well-being and recovery. Asuma often didn’t feel the three years between them, but this was one of those moments. But only, inversely. He didn’t know that in his current state, 26 years old and with tons of Jounin experience under his belt, that he could do what Kurenai was doing. She was much more grown up than him in a multitude of ways, and that’s exactly the reason (beyond the obvious new responsibilities) that he would wait a little longer before he brought up marriage.

“I don’t know,” Asuma finally said, “but isn’t it fun?”

“Yeah,” Kurenai said, a smile spreading across her face, “It really is.”

They stopped talking then, and celebrated (again, in the only way they knew how) her failed mission and his successful one, both of which they decided were good things. 

* * *

As for the young ninjas, they celebrated with their fathers, and as usual, it was a night of lots of food and lots of recounting of missions. Only this time instead of the elder formation of Ino-Shika-Cho doing all the babbling, it was the newer on. Well, mostly Ino and Chouji, talking about everything that happened, every other moment filled with what Shikamaru had done, how he motivated them, how he came up with a plan, about Sho, who had taken the final shit at Enji. While his teammates spoke about him, Shikaku glanced at his son, who didn’t deny nor confirm nor add decoration to what his teammates said. But there was a comfort in his face, an acceptance that Shikaku had never seen on his son’s face before. Shikamaru was happy, he thought, happy that this mission had turned him into something of a leader.

And Shikamaru was happy, deciding for once that being so grumpy was actually much more effort than allowing himself to enjoy things. So, he let his teammates show off about him that night and nodded when his father gave him a knowing look. Of course, Shikamaru still had so much more to learn. He had to learn to stop being so lazy, he had to learn how to stop being so casually sexist, he had to learn how to go through a loss, he had to learn how to fall in love. There was so much more to Shikamara Nara than what he was now, so much more to the young boy who would grow into one of the greatest leaders of the Fourth Great Ninja War.

This was Fate’s favorite part, the first setting of a strand in place, the magic of its red touching into reality and spinning its way on and on and on. That’s what the first mission gave Shikamaru Nara, a fated leadership that would go on and on and on.


	8. (Here) This One You May Know

**Someone remind me to never turn a 12-episode arc into a single chapter ever again. This chapter was killer to write, but I wrote it this way for a for a few reasons:**

**1) I think it was important that each Rookie Nine team mission be its own separate chapter, so they could all hold equal weight in the overall narrative.**

**2) Plus, I just like consistency.**

**In the future, all rewrites of canon Naruto arcs are going to be broken down across multiple chapters in the _Here_ timeline, with intersped but relevant _Before_ , _Between_ , or _Corners_ chapters. However, the Chunnin Exam is where I really start to veer from the canon so the story arcs might not be as relevant. **

**Anyway, please enjoy this crazy long chapter (38 pages). I'll start returning to normal-ish chapter lengths after this.**

* * *

All ninjas remember their first mission. Well, not their actual first mission because usually the first mission is something small and easy, tasks that keep them safe and in the village. No, I’m talking about the first time they feel like a ninja, the first mission that is just a little too hard, a little too risky, a little too much. It’s a mission that they’ll survive, of course, for how else could they remember it? But part of them doesn’t survive, part of them is forever changed, realizing, perhaps for the first time, the true stakes of the life they have chosen. Not all ninjas can handle it, and sometimes, after that first real mission, they leave shinobi lifestyle behind. And other times, it opens up a part of themselves that they never knew was hidden inside of them.

This is what happened to Naruto Uzumaki, on his first real mission.

Team 7’s first real mission was an escort mission. It brought them into the home of a grumpy old bridge builder, in the mind of a small scared boy, and against foes who had deeper stories of their own. Unlike the other missions, you may already know this story. But the devil’s in the details and this story is probably bigger than you thought it was.

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha looked out his window and let out a sigh. Kakashi had summoned them to the Hokage’s office for another mission. Sasuke doubted it would be anything exciting, or anything even worth a second thought. Every mission they had so far had been pathetic and annoying, stuff that Sasuke could have easily handled by himself, but the rules of the village deigned that Naruto and Sakura hold him down. Not that they were too bad, but Sasuke would never admit that. Naruto was always too loud, too overconfident, too everything – it annoyed Sasuke to no end. And Sakura was nice enough, but he knew all her niceness derived from the crush she had on him, one he didn’t have time to acknowledge or care about. He was so tired of this weak stuff, but at least Kakashi seemed okay. He didn’t particularly like their instructor, but he had a feeling that there was a lot more to Kakashi, that if he paid attention enough, he could really learn something from him. It wasn’t often that Sasuke was willing to admit, that he had something to learn, but it was the reason why he was so okay with working in this team model.

But for now, they had an hour until they had to meet in the Hokage’s office. Sasuke hopped out the window; he would train until then. He knew Sakura was likely to show up, but she hadn’t been much of a bother when she did. Training was more important than the girl who would sometimes follow him there. He had to do something, really, to keep himself alert and ready. He still had so much more to do, really, before he was truly ready.

Across the village, Sakura Haruno was having breakfast with her parents, who were babbling about the usual stuff she ignored. She pushed her food around her plate, annoyed at nothing in particular. She would need to leave for the Hokage’s office soon, to get assigned a new mission. Sakura was a little bit bored with the mission they had been assigned, but also relieved that they hadn’t been assigned anything dangerous yet. Sakura was of two minds. She wanted to be challenged and grow and learn and develop as a ninja, but she was also scared, scared that going on bigger missions meant getting hurt, meant seeing others get hurt. Especially Sasuke.

Her crush on Sasuke Uchiha had only increased during their last few months of being teammates. Up close, Sasuke was so much cooler, smarter, and darker than she had ever imagined him to be from their few interactions in class. But Sakura had also learned to mask her feelings too, to not be so obvious. To focus on the mission before Sasuke. At least she was learning that much. And Naruto, he was not as annoying as she expected him to be. In fact, she often found that they had similar senses of humor, not that she would ever admit that. She didn’t hate being his teammate as much as she expected. Their instructor was cool too, though she had to admit she was still scared of his skills after their bell test. Sakura had a feeling they had barely seen what Kakashi Hatake could actually do.

Sakura pushed back from her table, “Mom, Dad, I’m going to go ahead and head out.”

They said their usual farewells and Sakura walked out the door. In truth, she had over an hour before they had to meet at the Hokage’s office. But she had recently learned that Sasuke had a habit of training right before missions. And she had also learned that he didn’t seem to mind much if she showed up and trained alongside him, as long as she was silent. Neither of them had ever spoke during these silent trainings of even acknowledged that they sometimes quietly trained together. It was never a planned thing or a discussed thing. And Sakura found that more and more, she looked forward to these silent training sessions more than missions.

As Sakura passed near his apartment, Naruto Uzumaki woke up. He wasn’t waking up for her, nor did he even know she was passing below. Naruto was only just opening his eyes, long after his teammates had risen. He rolled off his bed and stared at the clock on his wall. He had an hour until he had to meet at the Hokage’s office for a new mission. Honestly, he was getting tired of these ‘so-called’ missions which didn’t really challenge him at all. He didn’t sign up to be a ninja for these lame things, and maybe he’d let the Hokage know how he felt when he went to the office today.

Despite the annoying missions, Naruto was actually loving the work of being a ninja so far. He knew this stuff was just small potatoes, but it would help him move on to bigger and better things. Besides, all this little stuff had given him plenty of opportunities to show up Sasuke, to impress Sakura, and finesse his way into figuring out more about Kakashi. And on the weekends, he got to tell Iruka all about it on their weekly ramen meet ups. Or he got to impress Konahamaru and the other two kids that had started following him around.

Naruto pulled out a cup of instant ramen, his breakfast of choice, and thought about how suddenly his life had changed in the last few months. Before, he had been all alone. He remembered that feeling deeply, everyone at the academy barely acknowledging him, except for when he made a fool of himself. Coming home alone every night to eat ramen alone, using his free time to train or play pranks, never having anyone to talk to but the thoughts in his own head or whatever villager he was annoying at the moment. Sometimes he’d talk with Teuchi, the old ramen man who was always nice to him, but never about anything important.

But now, Naruto had so much. Throughout the week, he did missions with Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi. Sure, Sasuke was annoying and Sakura could be overbearing, despite how cute she was, but they were acknowledging him and working with him to make stuff happen, even if it was something as simple as finding that annoying cat. And Kakashi, they had gotten off to a rough start, but Naruto realized that Kakashi was really impressive, that he could probably learn a lot from him if he paid attention. Plus, every weekend, Iruka treated him to ramen, where he could talk about anything and everything, and Iruka would listen, really listen, and make Naruto feel seen. He had never realized how cool Iruka was while he was at the academy, but now, he couldn’t imagine his life without him. When he wasn’t hanging out with Iruka, he was playing ninja with Konahamaru and his friends. Konahamaru was the Hokage’s grandson, who Naruto had accidentally befriended a few months ago, who now followed him around and listened to anything he would say. It felt good to be admired.

Naruto’s life felt full to him now, full in a way that it had never felt before, and in ways his young mind could not yet express. Which proves just how all-encompassing his loneliness was before, because the small things he had in his life felt so big to him – two teammates, two mentors, and a few kids to look up to him. It was not a lot, really, but Naruto felt on top of the world. He thought, really, that it all happened because he had become a ninja. He couldn’t wait to see how his life reshaped and reformed and expanded as he moved through the ranks. When he became Hokage, he would never be alone or disrespected again.

And of course, there was the unsaid part, the part that Naruto didn’t want to think about. What Mizuki had told him, about the Nine-Tailed Fox that lived inside of him. Naruto shoved the thought, the idea of him being a monster, deep inside of him, and he didn’t plan of ever bringing it up. As far as he was concerned, that was the one part of his newly changed life that didn’t matter, and he was going to keep it that way.

Far across the village, away from his students, Kakashi Hatake stood in front of the memorial stone. His uncovered eye found the usual spots, ‘Satomi Hatake, M.I.A.’ Kakashi was only five years old when his mother went off on one of her usual missions and never came back. And although he knew that he wouldn’t find his father’s name, Kakashi still looked for it anyway. He wanted to see ‘Sakumo Hatake, K.I.A.,’ like it should have been, but they didn’t put your name on a memorial if you took the coward’s way out. Kakashi scanned further and found the other two names, Rin Nohara and Obito Uchiha, both K.I.A. There were other names, of courses, names that belonged to faces that Kakashi once knew. You don’t get to be a ninja for 20 years and not rack up a body count of dead family, friends, and acquaintances. But these were the four names that mattered, the three said and one unsaid.

It had been so long since Kakashi had last been on a team. So many years in the Anbu, so many missions alone and without anyone to make him feel remorse. Yes, he had friends. And yes, on rare occasion, he paired with them for non-standard missions, but this was his first time he was actually taking on a team for Jounin instruction. The last few years, all the students had been disappointing, none of them working together to pass the test. Kakashi had gotten a bit of a reputation for failing every team he met…but not this team.

Sasuke had a big ego, but maybe, rightfully so. The kid was made of raw talent, but so sure and arrogant, so unwilling to see past his own self. Kakashi wanted a part in molding Sasuke into something more and had been waiting for the right moment to talk about his own connections to the Uchiha clan. On the surface, Sakura appeared ditzy and distracted, but her mind was sharp as a whip, she had a knack for genjutsu that most ninja didn’t, and she did a great job at calming the boys down when they got into it. Afterall, she had been the one who suggested they work together during the bell test. And Naruto, he was so many things at once. Naruto was wily and overexcited. He was so much like Kushina had been, but with a face that was all Minato. Sometimes, Naruto would smile and Kakashi felt like he was looking at his old instructor. And to think that Naruto didn’t know his parents, didn’t know how much of them he had in him, all because of that damned decree. Kakashi wasn’t one to rebel, though, so he’d keep the Hokage’s orders.

Kakashi supposed the Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were a lot like himself, Rin, and Obito too, a generation repeated in the team that was now his. But Kakashi didn’t care for metaphors very much, and he didn’t want to write ghosts into those who were still living. It wasn’t fair to either party.

But this was his team. And he was feeling it now, how to be part of something again. Usually, though not always, Jounin needed to advocate with the Hokage for their students’ first C-rank mission. Kakashi had hesitated for so long because he knew that even the simplest missions could turn teammates into names on memorials. But Kurenai’s team had left for their first C-rank mission nearly two weeks ago and Asuma’s team had just departed two days ago. It’d be unfair to hold his students back, so yesterday he had asked the Hokage for a C-rank mission for his students. And this morning, they would know.

Kakashi put his hand on the memorial and let out a sigh. He wouldn’t let his teammates down this time. This would be a team that he kept together.

What no one of Team 7 was just how complex their story was. A game played between Fate and Chance, pushing and pulling and weaving strands back and forth. Fate always had a plan, Chance played it by ear. It was a delicate balance, and one that no members of this team, regardless of how badly they wanted to, could really control.

* * *

“Instructor Kakashi, are you always going to be this late?” Sakura complained as Kakashi walked up. All of three of them were outside of the Hokage’s office with anxious looks on their face.

Kakashi let out a low chuckle, “Sorry, just got lost on the path of life.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Naruto said, “You’ve used that excuse before.”

Sasuke, as usual, kept mostly quiet. He looked a little worn already. Kakashi suspected Sasuke was likely overtraining himself but didn’t know how he would approach the topic. Later then, the kids needed to learn about the mission now.

“Well come on then, let’s not keep the Hokage waiting any longer,” Kakashi said as he pushed up the door. They followed after him, Naruto pushing ahead.

“Hello Kakashi—” Hiruzen began but then paused when Naruto slammed a hand down on his desk.

“Listen up old man!” Naruto yelled, all his bravado pouring through, “I’m tired of these lame ass D-rank missions. I’m a better ninja than this, and um, I guess Sasuke and Sakura are too, we deserve a C-rank mission!”

“Naruto, you can’t just talk to the Hokage like that!” Sakura whined, an angry flush across her face. Naruto was already embarrassing enough, now he had to go and be snappy with the Hokage. Although she did agree with him, she did think they deserved a C-rank mission, even though she was scared of the prospect of it. 

Sasuke scowled at Naruto. He didn’t want his chance at proving himself to be ruined by Naruto’s attitude. Kakashi tried not to chuckle. Of course, Naruto would give sass to anyone, even the Hokage.

Hiruzen shot a quick conspiratorial glance at Kakashi and then looked at Naruto. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, “Okay.”

Sasuke and Sakura let their jaws drop a little, surprised that Naruto had convinced him. Naruto pulled his hand away, confused that is was that easy. But then he let out a wide grin, “Wow, I’m really convincing, aren’t I?”

“Oh, you’re not convincing at all,” Hiruzen said blankly, “but your instructor is.”

Again, all three students were confused, Naruto flustered by how easily the Hokage had ragged on him. Kakashi shrugged his shoulders at him when they all looked at him for clarification.

Finally, Hiruzen let out a sigh, “Kakashi believes that you’re all ready for a C-rank mission. And against my better judgment, I’m listening to him. So tomorrow, you’re to escort an important client, a bridge builder, to the Land of Waves, sometimes called the Land of Whirlpools by non-ninja. The risk of interference is low, according to the intel provided to us by the client and our own sources, but still, all escort missions outside of the Land of Fire, despite how close the neighboring lands are, are at minimum, C-rank missions. And it’s just the type of mission that your instructor believes you can handle.”

Kakashi watched his students as they listened to the Hokage. Naruto’s grin growing bigger, Sasuke letting out a rare smirk, and Sakura with a look of uncertainty, halfway between fear and excitement. They deserved this mission, he thought, and he was glad he had advocated for it.

“Hell yeah!” Naruto yelled, “We’re gonna crush this mission and they you’re gonna have no choice but to give us every C-rank mission that comes your way, maybe even higher than that.”

“Not so fast Naruto,” the Hokage said, “you know the rules. Genin can only perform D-rank missions, and one occasion, C-rank missions. Chunins get all C and B-rank missions, A-rank missions go to Jounin, and only highly skilled Jounin, like the Anbu, are allowed to pursue S-rank missions. This has been the case since the start, the Leaf Village founders wanted to assure that no one would be forced into tasks they could not handle, especially children. And you’re still children, you’re still genin. Prove yourselves on this mission and maybe we can talk about getting you another C-rank mission, but no higher than that.”

Naruto let his shoulders sag for a moment, but then perked up, “Okay, okay, I see what you’re saying old man. But I’m gonna push through those ninja ranks easily, and then, get ready to retire because I’m coming for your position.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Of course, their few months of working together hadn’t rid Naruto of his inane dream to become Hokage. Sakura was flushing, still embarrassed Naruto would have the nerve to talk to the Hokage so callously. And Kakashi let himself smile, just slightly, under his mask, wondering how long Naruto would keep singing the same tune.

“Yeah, I’ve heard you say that before,” Hiruzen said, “But talk to me about it again after you’ve had a successful mission.”

And with that, he launched into more of the mission’s details – the time they would leave (tomorrow morning), who they would be escorting (Tazuna), where they would be going, what routes they would be taking, the expected timeline to complete the mission (they would be guarding the bridge builder until he completed the bridge), and other things they needed to know to make the mission possible. Then he dismissed Team 7, each of them their heads swimming with new thoughts and scenarios and visions for themselves, ready for whatever the first mission would give them.

* * *

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto thought three things as soon as they met Tazuna, the man they would be escorting to the Land of Waves. The first was that he was really old, the second was that he was really drunk, and the third was that they didn’t care, because they wouldn’t let a grumpy client ruin this, their first mission.

Tazuna took another drink, finishing off the sake bottle he had brought with him. He didn’t plan on being this drunk so early in the morning, didn’t plan on being an ass to these ninjas, but he couldn’t help it. They were only half a mile out of the Leaf Village and already the guilt was weighing in on him for lying, for requesting a C-rank escort for what he knew to be so much more. He didn’t know they’d pair him up with a bunch of kids. But at least their leader looked tough. He looked over at the guy, “So you’re sure that little blonde one is really a ninja? He doesn’t look like much. And the other two don’t look that great either.”

“Hey old man, we can hear you!” Naruto yelled. This was the second time Tazuna had questioned Naruto’s ninja status. The first had been earlier in the Hokage’s office, when Tazuna had first saw them. Sakura and Sasuke were less vocal then Naruto but glared at the back of Tazuna’s head anyway.

“Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke are perfectly capable genin, Tazuna,” Kakashi said, suspicious both of Tazuna’s drinking and of his disbelief that children were guarding him, as if he expected something more from a C-rank mission, “And I’m an S-rank Jounin, you’re going to be safe. Not that a C-rank missions requires S-rank protection anyway”

“Yeah, okay,” Tazuna said, glancing back at the kids. He wished he had something else to drink. He was scared for himself, he was scared for the kids, and he was scared of Kakashi finding out just how dangerous this mission was. He knew that ninjas could abandon the mission if the information provided was false. He hoped, for now, that nothing would happen.

And for a while, it didn’t. The Land of Waves was one of the Land of Fire’s closest neighbors. It would only take them two hours to reach the docks and another hour by boat to reach the island. A short trip there, and then a few week’s worth’s of protection while the bridge was being built.

Only an hour outside of Konaha and already, the three genin were wondering just how large the world was. Sasuke imagined traveling in the future, when he was stronger, just how far he would have to go to find his brother, wherever he was. Sakura remembered the high gates of the Leaf Village, the way they had kept her protected all her life, and now how she was here, out in the open, thrilled and fearful all at once to be outside of those gates. And Naruto thought about all the possibilities. He didn’t just want to be Hokage and do great things just in the Leaf Village, he wanted to do great things everywhere. He’d travel the whole world one day; he was sure of it. They felt, each of them in their own way, like they were actually like ninja.

But then it happened. One moment they were stepping through a few puddles and the next second, two ninjas were jumping out of their shallow waters. The ninjas looked terrifying, dark hair and eyes and masks covering their faces. They each had a metal claws wrapped around their hands, with chains attached to them.

Kakashi had thought nothing of the puddles, figured they were remnants of all the rain from the night before. He should have been more aware, but as soon as he saw them, and saw what they were planning on doing, he made the hand signs for a justu as quickly as he could.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto barely had time to react to the ninjas before they saw what they were doing. Almost faster than the rookie’s eyes could track them, they shot-out chains from their clawed hands and wrapped them in deep layers around Kakashi, and then pulled. The chains, laced with shuriken, squeezed, and tore through Kakashi, tearing him to shreds, his body breaking into shreds of blood and skin.

Sakura and Naruto felt their hearts drop, let out stifled noises of horror. They couldn’t believe what they had just saw. Couldn’t believe it had happened to Kakashi. But Sasuke knew they didn’t have time to react. As soon as the ninjas were done with Kakashi, the ninjas jumped toward Naruto, who was frozen in shock. They reached their claws toward Naruto, and before Naruto had a second to panic, Sasuke was jumping between them, kicking his legs out to block their claws, pushing them back a few feet.

Watching Sasuke in action jolted Sakura out of her shock, and she remembered why they were on this mission – to protect the bridge builder. Without thinking, she jumped in front of Tazuna, kunai at the ready, as one of the ninjas barreled toward her and the other toward Sasuke. She heard a clank of metal as Sasuke and the other ninja clashed but willed herself not to look. Instead, she watched another shuriken chain spring out from a mechanism in the claws of the ninja in front of her and launched her kunai at it, knocking it off course. This annoyed the ninja, who ran at her faster, kicking her back and out of the way of Tazuna, the whole thinking knocked the breath out of Sakura.

“No!” she yelled, as the ninja aimed at Tazuna, but then Sasuke was there, throwing the ninja off with a forward kick. The ninja flew through the air but managed to land lightly on his feet. The other ninja, quick as lightening, appeared beside him. Sasuke reached down and pulled Sakura up.

“Come on,” he said, as they both took stances in front of Tazuna, “it’s up to us.”

The whole time this was happening, both Naruto and Tazuna stood, frozen with shock. Tazuna couldn’t believe he was standing here like a coward while these children were defending him, couldn’t believe a ninja who had claimed he was S-rank had been taken down so easily. Tazuna’s heart was racing, hammering into his ears and draining his drunken red cheeks of color. These kids were going to fight until these ninjas slaughtered them, just like their instructor, and then they were going to kill him. And it was all his fault too, for not coughing up the money to pay for a higher ranked mission, to pay for more highly skilled guards.

Naruto was experiencing a different kind of shock, the shock of seeing his instructor slaughtered before him, of feeling powerless to stop it. Sasuke and Sakura had somehow jumped into action, but Naruto was here, his heart pounding, his ears ringing, his stomach, low and deep, feeling like it was on fire, like there was a burning rage boiling inside of him and if he even dared to move, it would take him over. That was what scared him, this is what kept Naruto still.

All these thoughts and feelings and rages all happened in the seconds it took for Sakura and Sasuke to take a few hits at the ninjas, for them to stand in front of Tazuna and prepare for a fight. But just as the ninja started rushing toward them again, they fell back, heads ripped back by a set of kunai launched into their throats, blood pouring out as their bodies dropped down.

Then, Kakashi is there, standing in front of them, whole and well.

“Instructor Kakashi! You’re alive!” Sakura shouted, the relief rushing through her was a sudden force, swiping away her adrenaline in seconds. Sasuke felt the same sort of relief, and Naruto too, Kakashi’s sudden appearance pulling him out of his stupor and hushing the burning in his stomach.

“I used substitution jutsu, let them get me a little,” Kakashi said, raising his arms to show off some shallow cuts, “to make it look real.”

“But…your body?” Sakura said, realizing as they she did, that they hadn’t seen Kakashi’s body, just a spatter of blood and what looked like Kakashi getting torn apart, “Oh, there was no body.”

“A useful thing to remember,” Kakashi said, gesturing to the still bleeding bodies of the ninja behind him, “unless you see a body, they’re probably not dead.”

They all glanced at the two-ninja laid out in front of them, realizing just how close they had all come to death, how easily these ninjas would have moved through them had Kakashi not jumped in.

“Sasuke, Sakura, you both did exceptionally well, you were able to jump into action despite thinking me dead. You both remembered our objective,” Kakashi said, a small tone of pride into his voice. But then Kakashi turned to Naruto.

“Naruto, you did nothing to help your teammates. You have to learn to react better. Ninjas get killed all the time; you can’t let if freeze you if one of those ninjas is a teammate, I’m disappointed in you.”

“But—” Naruto started to defend himself but then stopped. Kakashi was right, he froze up, and both Sakura and Sasuke proved themselves better ninjas than him. Naruto felt this with a cold dread in his stomach.

“And Tazuna,” Kakashi said, leveling an angry glare at the man. Kakashi suspected, from the worries Tazuna expressed earlier that morning, that this mission was more dangerous than they were led to believe. And that put his students at risk in a way they could not handle. That was not something Kakashi was willing to tolerate.

Tazuna knew Kakashi had figured him out, knew that the jig was up, but was still in shock by everything that had just happened, wanted a better explanation than what Kakashi gave him, “Why didn’t you just come back after you did your substitute whatever? Why let the kids fight for you if you could have easily taken those guys down.”

Kakashi gritted his teeth, so this is how it was going to go. “I wanted to see if the ninjas had a target and the moment it became obvious that it was you, I realized you lied to us.”

Tazuna’s face flushed a deep red, “Yeah, I lied.”

Naruto, still coming down from his shock and confused by what happened, spoke up, “What do you mean you lied?”

“The old guy lied about what he needed to be guarded from. Those ninjas were at least chunin rank,” Sasuke said, realizing the deception as soon as Kakashi explained the target. Only he wasn’t as annoyed as Kakashi was about it.

“Which means this isn’t a C-rank mission,” Sakura said, a sudden fear spreading over her at about what this now meant, “It’s at least B-rank or higher.”

Kakashi nodded, happy that Sasuke and Sakura proved themselves to be so perceptive. He also noted the calm in Sasuke’s voice, the fear in Sakura’s – their reactions to this news juxtaposed.

Tazuna felt shame settle into him, burning away the last of the alcohol in his system, “You, you just don’t understand.”

“Then explain,” Kakashi said harshly.

Tazuna took a deep breath and told them. Told them about Gato, the corrupt businessman who had such a strong grip on the Land of Waves. How he sold drugs and weapons and all other types of things, how he had his clutches in every part of the land’s economy, from the legitimate to illegitimate businesses. How he hired ninjas and other mercenaries to keep the people in check, to hurt, torture, or even kill them if they spoke against him, refused to work with him, or tried to start their own business enterprises. How Gato kept such a stronghold in the Land of Waves by controlling the only ships and boats used for trade. How Tazuna was originally from the Land of Waves, how he was an old-timer who called it the Land of Whirlpools, how he still had family there who he was moving back to join. But more importantly, how he was moving back there so he could build a bridge, a bridge that connected the Land of Waves to the Land of Fire, how this bridge could open an economic port for the people of this land that Gato couldn’t control. But Tazuna also told him how he was poor, like every person from the Land of Waves, poor because of Gato, how even their collected funds could only afford to hire a C-rank ninja guard. How Tazuna knew he was lying, knew he was putting all their lives at risk, but how the lives of everyone in the Land of Waves, and what this bridge would mean to them, would mean so much more.

As Tazuna spoke, Kakashi softened a bit. He understood the bridge builder, he was just trying to protect and do what was best for his people, and that’s all Kakashi wanted to do too. Sasuke didn’t think much of the story, just thought about it proved that corruption could be everywhere. It didn’t matter how good or kind or righteous something seemed, everyone had the capacity for evil. Sasuke knew that personally. Sakura listened the story with pity, the kernel of fear in her spreading even further. This is so much more than she or any of her other team members deserved to handle. And for Naruto, the story cracked deep into his naivete and split him open. He hadn’t imagined anything like corruption or greed or poverty. Naruto grew up lonely, but in the ample comfort and security of the Leaf Village. He didn’t know that people in other lands struggled like this. And man, how it motivated him, how it made him want to protect this bridge builder and his family and all the other people who he had never met in this land. Naruto wanted to fight for them.

“I understand if you want to stop the mission, I know that’s the deal. Ninjas can abandon the mission if the terms are falsified,” Tazuna said when he was done, the defeat and agony in his voice sharp and present.

“Tazuna, sir, I know you’re in a tough situation,” Sakura said, trying to make her voice soft, “But we’re just three genin, and new genin too, this is so much more than we can handle. I don’t think we should complete this mission.”

“Don’t speak too fast Sakura,” Kakashi said. He had his own thoughts, but he was curious to hear all of his student’s thoughts. “I think we should have a vote. Who thinks we should complete this mission?”

Sakura was surprised to hear this from Kakashi, had gotten the impression that he was a by-the-books ninjas. Was even more surprised he was willing to let them walk into this danger. “Well you know my answer is no.”

Kakashi nodded, “Sasuke?”

“We’re already on the mission, I don’t see the point in stopping now,” Sasuke said darkly, thinking of the opportunities this could give him. The fact that the mission was much more dangerous than he expected didn’t phase him.

“Naruto?” Kakashi said, expecting a ‘no,’ given just how scared Naruto had been before.

Instead, Naruto leapt up,” Of course it’s a yes! Did you hear this guy, this whole land is depending on him, and if we get to help him, why not?”

Kakashi began to reply but then Naruto went on, turning to Tazuna, “I know I dropped the ball earlier by freezing up, but I’m not going to do that again. I’m never going to back down from any challenge mission or anything ever again. You can believe me old man; I’m going to protect you!”

Tazuna was taken aback by this kid’s enthusiasm. He had expected him to be the one who backed down, but this kid was talking to him like he really believed in him, like he understood the struggle that his people were going through.

“Instructor Kakashi?” Sakura said when Naruto had finished his speech, understanding where Naruto came from but still knowing that this was too much for them.

Kakashi looked at his students. He had expected a yes from Sasuke, whose arrogance probably wouldn’t let him realize the vast difference in danger between a C-rank mission and other missions. And he had expected a no from Sakura. She was a smart girl, and she was right, this is not something that any of them, except himself, were equipped to handle. But Naruto had surprised him, as he always did, with just how much of his heart he put into everything, even into helping a land full of strangers. Kakashi thought back to the day before, thought about how he had promised himself to protect his students, how that didn’t change, even if the mission had changed.

“I vote yes,” Kakashi said, looking at all of them, “We complete this mission and protect Tazuna, the bridge builder, no matter the cost.”

* * *

Not too far away and somewhere disclosed, one of Gato’s lackeys told him about what happened. About the now dead ninjas who had been defeated by a Leaf Village jounin and a couple of kids, the bridge builder in tow.

Gato grinded his teeth, pissed that they had failed. How hard could it be to kill one old man? But at least now he knew what protection detail the bridge builder had managed to find. He was surprised that he had the cash for an elite jounin. He thought he had made sure that no one in the Land of Waves had any change to spare. That was how he kept them under his control, and he intended to keep it that way.

It had been a bad week for Gato. First, he learned about this bridge, then he heard word that his favorite business partner, Enji, was found with an arrow lodge through his skull in the Land of Hot Water, and now this, an assassination that should have been easy turned more complicated.

“Zabuza!” Gato called, his lips pulled into a tight frown.

Zabuza Momochi, Gato’s prized ninja, pulled himself and his weapon from around the corner. Gato had been having good luck ever since he had hired this guy, and he knew he was just the one to turn this around.

“Yeah, what do you want?”

“You want to fix a mess those stupid fucks didn’t clean up?” Gato asked.

A cold gleam appeared in Zabuza’s eyes. Under the bandages wrapped around his jaw, Gato saw his mouth turn upward into a slick grin, “It’ll be my pleasure.” 

* * *

With Kakashi’s final word, Team 7 continued on the mission. As they did, Kakashi asked more questions of Tazuna, more details about what to expect, the type of ninjas who normally worked for Gato. Tazuna answered to the best of his abilities. Kakashi made his students pay attention, told them to listen to everything Tazuna was saying, told them that they should be prepared, there would surely be another attack.

And Kakashi was right. They were close to the edges of the Land of Fire, by a shore where a single, small boat would be waiting to propel them across the few miles of water to the Land of Waves, the same water that Tazuna would build a bridge over. It was here, so close and yet so far away, where the Demon of the Hidden Mist found them. Only Team 7 didn’t know that yet.

As they got closer to the water, a fog rolled in. Tazuna thought nothing of it, as he knew how misty the waters could get. Sasuke and Naruto didn’t think much of either. But something felt off about the fog to Sakura, a feeling she couldn’t put her finger on, a strange sense that this fog wasn’t real.

Instructor Kakashi, I think—” Sakura began, trying to tell him that she thought this fog might be a genjutsu, when he cut her off with yell.

“Everyone, duck!”

The three genin fell to ground at the command, Sakura pulling Tazuna along with her as what looked like a massive sword flew through the air and plunged into the three above them. Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto couldn’t believe it, had never seen a weapon that massive, as big as a man, like a giant carving knife, slashed into the tree they were standing beside. And through the fog, they could just make out a man, tall and muscled with bandages wrapped around his face.

“Hi everyone,” he said, his voice dark and heavy, “I’ll be taking the bridge builder now.”

“No, you won’t,” Kakashi bit back at him, “Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, protect Tazuna!”

The man in the mist chuckled to himself and then dove at Kakashi. Kakashi was ready for him, moving out of the way in an instant. But his opponent was quick too, catching up to him before he dove away. Kakashi threw out two punches, but the fog, which Kakashi recognized now as a genjutsu, thickened around him, making it harder for him to land a hit before the guy dodged him and came at him from behind. Kakashi flipped out of the way. This went on for a few more moments, both of them too quick for each other.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto watched their shadows dance around in the mist, the movements too fast to tell who was Kakashi and who was the other guy. But they had formed a protective circle around Tazuna, Sasuke in the front and Naruto and Sakura on each side.

“Don’t worry Tazuna, we’ll protect you,” Sakura said, trying to ease some of the worry she saw on the old guy’s face. But the truth was that she was trying to calm herself down as much as she was trying to calm down Tazuna.

“As much fun as it is dancing with you like this, let’s end this,” the ninja said. He leapt away from Kakashi, grabbed the hilt of the sword from the tree and ripped it out. The top half of the tree fell as he did, crashing unto the waiting genin. Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto moved out of the way and pulled Tazuna along as quickly as they could.

The ninja leapt through the fog, the mist dispersing around as he brought the sword down on Kakashi. Kakashi dove out of the way and when the ninja landed in front of him, Kakashi finally got a good look at him. With the sword in his hands, he could see it now, who his opponent was. He had never met him before, but it was the sword that gave him away. This sword belonged to one of the Seven Swordsman of the Hidden Mist Village, an Anbu ranked ninja who went rogue, who they called the demon of the mist.

“Zabuza Momochi,” Kakashi said coldy.

“Oh, so you’ve heard of me,” Zabuza said, an arrogant chuckle in his voice.

Kakashi let out a sigh. When he had agreed to continue the mission, he hadn’t expected anything like this, if anything, he expected a few more chunin ranked ninjas who he could take out easily. Kakashi reached up, pushed his headband up, and uncovered his right eye, “Yeah, I’ve heard of you, and I’m sure you’ve heard of me too.”

“Hmm, can’t say I have,” Zabuza said and then launched at Kakashi again.

With his Sharigan uncovered, all of Zabuza’s movements played as if slow motion. Kakashi saw the grip of his hands on the sword, the movement of his feet, the motion of his arms before he even began to swing. He dodged it and dove forward, sinking a kunai in Zabuza’s stomach. The man and his sword melted into a puddle of water. A clone, easy enough to copy, and Kakashi felt it, as he always did when he used his Sharigan, the need, the want, the way it almost copied the technique before he even thought about copying it himself. So, when Zabuza appeared behind him, his sword aiming to slice Kakashi in half, he didn’t have to think, his hands mimicking the justu of their own accord, Kakashi’s clone dissolving into water as Zabuza sliced through it. Kakashi landed behind Zabuza, a kunai pressing against his throat.

“Oh, you copied my justu,” Zabuza said with a growl, suddenly melting away from the kuani. And then he was behind Kakashi, swinging the sword at him. Kakashi ducked from under it, and as he did, Zabuza hit him with a kick that sent him flying. Kakashi cursed under his breath. The Sharigan gave him an advantage, it slowed everything down for him, made it possible for him to copy jutsus he had never seen before. But he only had one Sharigan, and it sometimes had its own blind spots. He hadn’t seen that the second Zabuza was also a clone.

And then Kakashi was landing in water, water that shouldn’t have been there, water that felt heavier than water should’ve felt. He tried to make a move, but then Zabuza was on him, a wall of water bending and forming up around him, covering him. His Sharigan sensed the jutsu, felt it, gave a name for it to him – water prison jutsu.

Outside the sphere of swirling water, Zabuza stood, keeping the jutsu going with one arm.

“So, you’re that famous copy ninja from the Leaf Village, huh?” Zabuza said, a chuckle in his voice, “I thought a man who had copied more than a hundred jutsu would be more impressive than this.”

While all this happened, the genin watched the fight in horror. At so many moments they thought Zabuza had gotten a jump on Kakashi and at other moments, it seemed like Kakashi had a jump on Zabuza. It terrified them to see their instructor, who was supposed to be so strong, so easily matched.

But what was most surprising of all was the bloodred eye that Kakashi had revealed, that they could see through the fog.

“I can’t believe it,” Sasuke said, when Kakashi first pulled his headband up. He hadn’t seen a Sharigan eye in four years, and he would never forget his brother, his blazing red eyes looking at him after Sasuke had found their parents, after he had found everyone. All the Uchiha were supposed to be dead, and Kakashi wasn’t a Uchiha. There was no reason he should have a Sharigan.

“What is that?” Sakura asked, intrigued by this reveal.

“It’s the Sharigan, a kekkei genkai,” Sasuke said tensely, “the kekkei genkai of the Uchiha clan.”

“What?” Sakura asked, confused. Kakashi wasn’t a Uchiha.

“Woah, I didn’t know Kakashi could do a water clone,” Naruto said, releasing a breath of relief as he watched the sword slice through water instead of his instructor.

“He probably couldn’t, until now,” Sasuke said, “That’s what the Sharigan does, it lets you copy any ninjutsu.”

And then they watched as a circle of water encircled their instructor, wrapping itself around him, Zabuza with a firm fist over the circle of water. They waited one second, two, three, but Kakashi stayed put. It wasn’t a trick; it wasn’t a special move. Kakashi was really and truly trapped.

And then they heard Zabuza laugh, a terrible hard laugh, as a clone of himself appeared out of the water that had appeared, sword and all, sulking toward him.

“Run!” Kakashi yelled, his voice muffled by the water, “Take Tazuna and go! He won’t be able to move why he keeps me trapped and his clone will dissolve if it gets too far from his body. GO!”

Kakashi couldn’t believe he had let himself get caught like this. He needed his students to run, it would be their best chance. He couldn’t escape from this water prison and protect them at the same time. Besides, he would run out of breath before too long.

The clone launched at them before they even had time to take in what Kakashi said, jumping after Naruto first. It kicked him back and Naruto flew through the air, his headband flying off.

“You’re not even a ninja,” the clone said menacingly, “You’re just a kid!”

“Naruto!” Sakura yelled, moving to go to him but then held her position, remembering who they needed to protect.

Sasuke glared at the clone as he turned to him. Kakashi was stupid to tell them to run away now. Even if they got away from the clone, a ninja this skilled would get them eventually. They had no choice but to fight, to rescue Kakashi.

“We have to fight!” Sasuke yelled and then moved toward the Zabuza clone. He threw as many kunai as he could at the guy, keeping a running pace. The clone used his sword to deflect them and caught Sasuke by the throat as he tried to launch into the air. He threw Sasuke away, where he crashed into Naruto, still pulling himself up from the kick.

“Sasuke!” Sakura shouted and looked around. She was the only thing standing between the Zabuza clone and Tazuna. A shiver of fear ran down her span, and she felt the genjutsu increasing, the misty fog deepening around them. She could barely see the clone; the real Zabuza and Kakashi had disappeared from sight all together. Sasuke and Naruto were just shadows in the mist. She didn’t know if she could fight, but there was something she could do.

Naruto was just getting up from the kick in the gut when Sasuke slammed into him. He felt the same sort of frozen fear he had felt earlier, like he couldn’t move while a fire raged in the pit of his stomach. Sasuke recovered quickly, jumping to his feet and pulling Naruto up with him.

“Come on you idiot, what happened to never backing down from a challenge,” Sasuke said gruffly.

“You’re right,” Naruto said, realizing what he had promised earlier, realizing that he was being a coward. He couldn’t let Sasuke show him up, he couldn’t back down from whatever challenge he faced – even a ninja who was clearly better than all of them combined. He grabbed fallen headband, wrapped it around his head, and turned toward the Zabuza clone.

“You’re wrong! I’m not just a kid!” Naruto shouted, “I’m a ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village and I never back down! I’m going to be the next Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki!”

Both Zabuzas rolled their eyes at this. It was so much talk from such a small kid. 

But Naruto felt his words as he said them, felt the truth of what he wanted to do, what he was willing to stand up for. And he wasn’t scared at all anymore. He looked as Sasuke with a grin on his face and whispered, “I have a plan.”

Just as he said this, the fog around them sank away, the air suddenly clear for the first time since the start of the fight.

“So, you have a little genjutsu user in your midst,” the real Zabuza said, looking in Sakura’s direction.

Sakura was concentrating, harder than she ever had in her life, holding the hand sign to keep his genjutsu at bay, keep guard in front of Tazuna. “Sasuke, Naruto! I keep can the fog at bay as long as you distract him. We need this visibility to rescue Kakashi.”

Kakashi couldn’t believe his students were trying to save him, couldn’t believe they were fighting when he told them to run. They didn’t know anything about Zabuza, didn’t know the history this guy had. But Kakashi knew, heard it spoken about through the dark channels between villages, about just how much blood that sword had tasted. But he also had a feeling that even if he told them, they would still try to rescue him. Stupid, brave and reckless. He forgot that’s what being part of a team meant.

And then Sasuke was rushing forward, heading toward the Zabuza clone. The clone caught him quickly, slamming him into the ground and stomped down on his stomach.

“I can’t wait to kill you,” he said darkly, reaching for his sword and pushed his foot down harder on Sasuke’s stomach.

But then Naruto was jumping in, making the symbol for clone jutsu. Thirty different versions of Naruto encircled Zabuza. Zabuza was surprised, not many ninjas, let alone ninjas this young, had the capacity to make such fully formed clones. It didn’t matter, these kids were still easy pickings.

“Here we go!” all of the Naruto clones shouted, diving at Zabuza with kunais out. The Zabuza cut through half of the clones in one swing of his sword, and sent the rest flying back with a few well aimed kicks and hits. But then one of them was pulling something out of his backpack, throwing an oversized shuriken in the direction of the newly freed Sasuke.

Sasuke caught it with a steady hand and spun around, letting it fly out of his arm in a swift movement. The shuriken flew toward the Zabuza clone, but just as the clone was making moves to dodge it, the shuriken swerved to the left, heading directly toward the real Zabuza, his fist still keeping the water prison in place.

“A single shuriken, so predictable,” Zabuza said, using his free arm to stop it solidly in its tracks. But then another shuriken appeared, splitting off from the shadow of the first. For a moment, they all thought it would work, but then, without even disturbing the water prison at all, Zabuza jumped up, avoiding the low aim of the second shuriken.

“Easy,” he said.

But then there was a light poof and shuriken was suddenly a boy, the annoying loudmouth, who let loose a kunai right in his direction. Zabuza didn’t have time to dodge it, and in one shuddering movement, wrenched his hand away to break the water prison.

“You little brat!” Zabuza yelled, swinging the shuriken he had caught around, but then something stopped it, a solid fist, and the copy ninja glaring up at him.

Under his mask, Kakashi smiled. This time he would be serious.

Behind them, Naruto shouted, “Hell yeah! My plan worked, we freed you!”

“Naruto, regroup with the others. Protect Tazuna,” Kakashi yelled back. There was a serious edge in Kakashi’s voice that Naruto had never heard before, a tension that wasn’t even present when Kakashi had been yelling at him to run. Naruto ran through the water and rejoined Sasuke and Sakura, reforming around Tazuna. As soon as Zabuza had let go of the water prison, he had lost the water clone and his genjutsu too. All the genin needed to concentrate on now was protecting the bridge builder. And, of course, learning just how powerful their instructor was.

They watched as Kakashi and Zabuza continued to fight, Kakashi mimicking Zabuza’z moves as he did them, two dragons of water rising at the same time, hands and arms and taijutsu moves at the same time, everything that Zabuza did, Kakashi did in return, the red in Sharigan brighter, the black inside of it spinning. It was incredible to see, and they watched in awe.

“This is the true power of the Sharigan, like I said, it can copy anything,” Sasuke said, impressed and jealous at the same time.

Kakashi was letting the Sharigan take over, as it did, propelling him forward in every motion he copied. It was draining his chakra; he wouldn’t be able to keep it up much longer. But he could tell he had Zabuza on his toes, could see the fear in his eyes when the Sharigan predicated his next move before he even did it, a water vortex jutsu that took away Zabuza’s breathe and knocked him against a tree. Kakashi had him where he wanted him, there was no way Zabuza was going to recover easily from that. Kakashi had his chance for a kill shot, but then…

A series of needles flew out from the trees and pierced Zabuza, knocking him out cold. Kakashi look up for the source as a kid jumped down from the trees. Kakashi instantly recognized the mask, an Anbu tracker from the Hidden Mist Village. Behind him, the genin and Tazuna ran forward.

“What was that?” Naruto shouted, but then he saw it, a ninja who couldn’t be any older than him standing in front of Kakashi, a mask covering his full face.

“He’s dead?” Sakura said, looking at the way Zabuza’s eyes were cold, frozen, and open.

Kakashi reached forward to Zabuza’s neck, felt no pulse, “He’s definitely dead.”

“Thank you,” the masked ninja said, with a gentle bow, “I’ve been waiting to kill Zabuza Momochi for a long, long time.”

“You’re an Anbu tracker and he was your target?” Kakashi asked, hesitant to trust this ninja fully despite him killing Zabuza.

“Impressive,” the ninja said, his voice still and small, “You know of us.”

“What’s an Anbu tracker? What’s that?” Naruto said, still confused by this

“Naruto, we learned all about this at the Academy,” Sakura said with a sigh.

“You idiot, Anbu trackers catch rogue ninjas and dispose of them, to protect village secrets,” Sasuke said, annoyed that they always had to explain so much to Naruto.

“But…” Naruto said, gesturing toward the guy in the mask, who was smaller and shorter than even he was, “he’s just a kid, how can he already be so high ranking, how can he so easily kill a guy like that?”

“I get your disbelief,” Kakashi said, seeing just how much this was freaking Naruto out. He reached a handout to pat Naruto’s head, “But it’s reality. It this world there are ninjas are who much younger than you, yet stronger than me.”

Naruto wanted to say more but bit his lip. There was a sinking feeling in his gut, a sudden realization that no matter how good he felt about the plan he and Sasuke had pulled off, no matter how relieved he was that Zabuza was no dead, there were so many who were stronger than him. He would have to work so much harder.

“Well, if you’ll excuse me,” the masked ninja said and leaned down, shifting Zabuza’s huge body over his small frame, “I need to dispose of this body, it contains too many secrets”

And in a swirling of wind, he was gone, and so was Zabuza, as if the entire fight, and all their efforts, had never happened. Kakashi was taken aback by the sudden departure. Usually the disposal happened immediately. It made him curious.

“Well, we still have a mission complete. Tazuna –” Kakashi said, turning to the bridge builder. And that’s when it hit him, a sudden dark weight of chakra depletion. And then Kakashi Hatake passed out.

* * *

Kakashi woke up in a room he didn’t recognize, laying across a thin bed mat. His head was ringing, pain pulsing in his temple just above his left eye. Kakashi let out a groan – this always happened when he overexerted his Sharigan. It didn’t like the body it was stuck in and always reminded Kakashi of that.

Then he saw it, a little kid leaning over him. Dark hair and eyes, a curious look on his face. He opened his mouth in a yell, “He’s awake!”

And then Kakashi heard and felt a rumbling of feet and his students were standing in a doorway, with Tazuna and unfamiliar woman behind them. The kid in front of him ran out to meet them and stood behind the women, clinging to her leg.

“Instructor Kakashi, you’re awake!” Naruto yelled, bounding toward him, “Sasuke told us you probably drained yourself of chakra by using your Shari-thing, so we had to drag you here. You’re a lot heavier than you look.”

Just as Naruto finished, Sakura piped up, “Honestly Instructor Kakashi, if your Sharigan depletes you that much, it may not be worth it to use it.”

“But without it, he wouldn’t have been able to beat that guy,” Tazuna said.

“Didn’t that guy in the mask technically kill Zabuza though?” Sakura asked.

“Yeah,” Naruto grumbled, “Don’t remind me.”

“Kakashi, sir,” the woman spoke up, her voice light, “I want to thank you for protecting my father. He’s too stubborn to admit it aloud, but he’s grateful that you did so much more work than you’re being paid for.”

Kakashi processed all of it slowly, the voices stabbing their way into his still aching forehead, a moment to take it all in beyond the veil of pain and soreness. He glanced over at Sasuke, who was the only one who hadn’t said anything.

Sasuke lightly rolled his eyes, “We got across the water and to Tazuna’s house without incident, you’ve been out for almost a full 24 hours. Tazuna and his crew plan on starting work on the bridge tomorrow morning, and I’m assuming we’ll need to be there for guard duty.”

“You’re right,” Kakashi finally spoke, pulling himself up into a sitting position. His entire body ached. “But it’s going to be another few days before I can really move again, which means we need to train today, in case—”

“In case what?” Naruto said, cutting him off, “You don’t think that Gato guy going to send someone else scarier than Zabuza, do you?”

Kakashi shook his head, “No, it’s not that. Something just caught my eye.”

His students were quiet, rare except for Sasuke, to hear him say more.

“Sasuke was right about the Anbu tracker needing to dispose of the body to protect Village secrets, but usually the work is immediate. It’s highly suspicious that that tracker ninja took Zabuza away. Even though I didn’t feel a heartbeat, I’m not sure if we’ve seen the last of Zabuza.”

“Aren’t you reading too far into it?” Tazuna asked.

“No, I’m not. It’s highly unusual for a tracker ninja to transport a body before disposing of it. Their work is too important to waste that type of time. It’s better that we prepare now so that we may better face what comes later,” Kakashi said, not wanting a repeat of their previous fight. He was proud of his students, for how Sakura had enough chakra control to get rid of Zabuza’s genjutsu, for how Sasuke and Naruto did the shuriken trick to free him. But they were totally outside of their league with a ninja like Zabuza and until he was full strength again, they needed to prepare, needed to be ready, just in case what Kakashi thought was true.

“Bring it on! I’ll do whatever I need to do to prepare, I’m not scared to face that guy again,” Naruto said, with a jump in the air.

Kakashi was always surprised by Naruto’s enthusiasm. To hear that someone like Zabuza may still be alive again and yet be so excited by it. Kakashi couldn’t decide if Naruto was strong or stupid for it.

“Tazuna, are you willing to delay the bridge building for a few days, until I can rest a little and train my students a little more?” Kakashi asked, looking toward the bridge builder.

“Well, I guess,” Tazuna said grumpily.

The woman beside him elbowed Tazuna in the stomach and not lightly, “Of course he’s okay with that. These ninjas saved your life so you could build that bridge Dad, you build it on the schedule that works best for them.”

“I said yes,” Tazuna said, clutching his side.

“But mom,” the little boy whined, glaring at all of them, “these ninjas are just going to die. There’s no way they can face Gato and win.”

“What did you say you?” Naruto yelled, annoyed this chump would question how strong they were. This kid had been nothing but quiet and gloomy since they got here, “I don’t care if I’m facing Zabuza, or Gato, or whoever. I’m going to be a ninja hero saves your Grandpa and gets that bridge built.”

The kid stared at them darkly, “There’s no such thing as a hero, that’s ridiculous. If you don’t want to die, you should go home now.”

“Inari, you shouldn’t speak –” the woman began but Inari interrupted her.

“I’m going to go sit about by the sea,” he said, moving out of the room and away from them.

“Is he still like this because of Kaiza?” Tazuna asked.

The woman nodded her head, “I’m sorry about my son. He lost someone very special to him a little ways back, and I think it took away all his hope.”

And then she told them a story, about a man named Kaiza, Inari’s stepfather and her late husband. How they met when he saved Inari from drowning, how Inari immediately loved him, like everyone in their town did. How Kaiza was brave and strong and true, doing whatever he could to stand up to Gato and help the people in the Land of Waves. Kaiza was a non-ninja, but he was brave like he was a ninja. She told them more, how he had saved their town from a dam bursting one time, how would steal food from Gato’s thugs to feed to the hungry, how he built traps to trick, confuse, and mess with the ninjas who worked with Gato. He was the town hero, until Gato convinced some ninjas to rip off his arms, bleeding out as they pushed his body into the water. How Inari, and so many others, had watched the whole thing and did nothing to stop it.

They listened diligently, letting it fill the gaps of the story Tazuna had told them before. Fleshing out the terror that Gato caused the people in the Land of Waves, building an understanding of the desperation of the people here. And when Tsunami, whose name Kakashi eventually learned, was done with the story, he thanked her and said it was all the more reason for them to be prepared for a potential attack.

Team 7 made their way into the wood’s behind Tsunami’s home, Kakashi moving slow and on a crutch, his body taking its time to participate. As they walked, they passed the docks, and Naruto saw the little boy, Inari, staring out at the water, tears running down his face.

* * *

Far away, yet still close by, the masked ninja was leaning over Zabuza’s dead body when Zabuza sat up, his eyes bloodshot.

“You cut it pretty damn close there,” he said, his voice scratchy. He pulled at the needles that were stuck in him, at his neck, shoulders, and stomach.

“And it will be even closer if you’re not careful about how you pull out those needles,” the boy said, his voice still as gentle as it was before.

Zabuza just rolled his eyes at the boy, “Take off that damn mask.”

The boy did as Zabuza said, revealing a soft and delicate face, features so slight that he could easily be mistaken for a girl.

“There you are Haku,” Zabuza said with a slight smile. He tried to lift himself off the ground, but felt a numbness in his arms and legs, that made it almost impossible to move.

“You’ll be numb for a week or so, it will be impossible to move,” Haku said, then gave Zabuza a smile, “But knowing how strong you are, that may only take a few days.”

“You’re always so confident in me,” Zabuza said.

Haku smiled then, a slight blush spreading across his cheeks. “Why wouldn’t I be? I know you. But you’ll be alright next time, won’t you?”

“Next time, that Copy Ninja won’t get the best of me. I know how his Sharigan works now,” Zabuza said, his voice turning cold, his eyes glaring into focus.

As he said this, there was a shuffling in the woods behind them. Haku took a strong stance, ready to face whoever approached, but eased up as soon as he saw who it was. A small man in a business suit, flanked by two ninjas on either side – Gato.

“So those Leaf Village ninjas gave you a good ass kicking, did they?” Gato said, a laugh edging along his voice. “And yet you call yourself the Demon of the Hidden Mist?”

Zabuza glared at Gato, “It won’t happen again. I know all their tricks now.”

“Good, you better deliver or there will be no place for you in my crew, you hear me?” Gato replied harshly, annoyed how lippy Zabuza would get. He needed to remember who was paying who.

“Zabuza needs time to rest and recover from this fight,” Haku said and his voice wasn’t gentle anymore, instead it took on a menacing edge. Gato lowered his gaze at the kid. Technically, he wasn’t on Gato’s payroll so couldn’t command him. But he had seen the kid follow Zabuza around like he was a lost puppy and knew just how rabid that puppy could be when it was upset.

“Fine,” Gato said, “You can have a few days, but I won’t accept failure after this.”

Gato and his men walked away. Haku turned back to Zabuza, who’s hand was clinging to his blade, shaking harshly, trying to resist the sedative in his system. It should have been impossible for Zabuza to move at all right now, but as Haku said, Zabuza was strong enough to resist it. His grip tightened around the sword’s hilt and the shaking stopped.

“I can’t wait until we take that fucker out,” Zabuza said through gritted teeth.

“Patience,” Haku said, his voice returning to its gentle tone, “You told me that yourself, we have to wait until the right time.”

“You’re right,” Zabuza said, and let his hand fall. He let himself fall back too and looked up at the sky. All he needed was a little time, and he would get what he wanted, Haku at his side. 

* * *

Kakashi had them working on precision chakra control, something they had talked about in theory while at the academy, but not something they had ever practiced. In particularl, Kakashi had them climbing trees, using only the bottoms of their feet and nothing to grip with. Just chakra to keep them connected to the bark.

Sakura had gotten it right away, walking up a tree and running to its highest branch with no problems. She leapt down in a series of swift, graceful jumps.

“Good job Sakura,” Kakashi said, impressed once again by such precise and natural chakra control at such a young age, “Looks like the boys will have to look to you for guidance.”

Both Naruto and Sasuke struggled immediately, not making it more than a few feet up a tree. They were equally frustrated by this, Sasuke because he rarely met a justu that he couldn’t grasp immediatel. His ego took a sharp hit as he watched Sakura master this technique without a single bit of trouble. Naruto was frustrated too, but for something that went far beyond Sasuke’s ego. He was frustrated by that ninja who had taken away by Zabuza, by the stark reality that there were so many ninjas who were so much stronger than he could imagine. Until this mission, the strongest ninja he had seen in action was Kakashi, but even he had struggled against Zabuza. And if that kid really was tricking them, like Kakashi expected, then who knew how strong he was. And Naruto was frustrated by this land, by the stories that Tazuna had told them while they were traveling, the stories about Kaiza, who Tsuname had told them about earlier. Kaiza sounded like a real hero, like the type of guy Naruto wanted to be. And Inari, that little brat, he didn’t believe in heroes. Sure, Naruto felt bad for the kid, but crying over his stepdad and not believing in heroes anymore, that was just dishonoring Kaiza’s legacy.

Naruto let that frustration motivate him. Let him want to get this chakra control thing down path. It also helped that Sasuke didn’t get it right away either – even more motivation for Naruto.

They practiced that whole night, and the next day too, and the next. One the second day, Kakashi charged Sakura with escorting Tazuna around the town while he picked up supplies. She didn’t need the practice, and it was something to make Tazuna feel more secure. Though, if Zabuza was still alive, he probably needed just as much recovery time as Kakashi. An attack wouldn’t come for days.

And while Sakura moved through the town with Tazuna, she saw the realities of this land’s broken economy in the face – children who were hungry, businesses that were run down or completely closed, ports that were guarded by Gato’s minions (they steered clear of those). This bridge would mean so much to them. The more she saw, the more she regretted her earlier fears, of wanting to abandon the mission after they found out Tazuna deceived them.

While Sakura moved throughout the Land of Waves, Sasuke and Naruto climbed trees, each moment getting a little bit higher, Sasuke higher in this moment and Naruto higher in another, the competition driving each of them. And two days later, that competition drove them far up into the trees, each of them running the full length, to the highest branch that could hold them.

“Yeah!” Naruto shouted from the top of tree, “We did it!”

Sasuke rolled his eyes at him but couldn’t help but smile himself. Far below them, Kakashi and Sakura looked up at them.

“Hmm, they really push each other, don’t they?” Kakashi said.

Sakura smiled at up at them both, a strange rush of affection for both of her teammates, “Yeah, they really do.”

* * *

At dinner that night, Sasuke and Naruto dug into the food, trying to regain their strength as much as they could. Kakashi was feeling better too, having rested the better part of two days. He could move without the crutch, felt the strength returning his muscles, his headache fading to something dull and manageable.

After Naruto finished his meal, he laid his head down on the table, “Man, I’m beat, but I really did it, I can probably control my chakra better than Sakura now.”

Sakura rolled her eyes at him, “Yeah, you wish.”

Across the table, Inari was glaring at all of them. He had been lurking around them while they trained, had glowered at Naruto in particular whenever he came home each night exhausted.

“Why are you working so hard for nothing?” he yelled suddenly, slamming his small hands against the table.

“Inari,” Tsunami said, a reprimand in her voice.

“But Mom, they’re no match for Gato’s men no matter how much they train,” Inari said and as he spoke, tears welled up in his eyes, “No matter how hard you work, or whatever cool things you do, it’s not going to be enough.”

Naruto had almost had enough of this kid, didn’t care at all that he was crying, “Oh shut up, I’m nothing like you, I’m not going to give up.”

“No, you shut up!”

Tsunami tried to stop Inari again, but it was lost in his shouts, “You don’t know anything about this land or the people here. You don’t know anything about our pain!”

Naruto glowered at him, “So you’re just gonna cry about your pain forever and get nothing done. Go ahead, you crybaby.”

“Naruto, that’s too harsh!” Sakura said, her heart going out to the young boy now openly sobbing in front of them.

“Whatever,” Naruto said and pushed away from the table, “I’m going to go train some more.”

“Inari,” Tazuna said, trying to get up, to comfort his grandson. Inari pulled away and ran outside, running out to the edge of the docks to stare out at the sea. Tazuna made moves to follow him, but Kakashi stood up.

“Tazuna, since it’s my student who upset him, I’d like to talk to him.”

Tazuna nodded and Kakashi followed the boy outside, walking slowly down the long dock. He saw where both Naruto and Inari were coming from. Both were young boys who had experienced a lot of pain, who were lonely and hurt, but their reactions to it were totally different. And maybe explaining a little bit of what he had come to know of Naruto over the last few months would help. Maybe he could get Inari to see that Naruto wasn’t just an asshole, but just handling his pain in a different way.

This wasn’t something Kakashi was normally invested in. But just like he was learning again what it meant to be a team he was learning again what helping a stranger could mean.

Inari wrapped around his legs, hots tears spilling over his cheeks. Kakashi sat down beside him.

“Naruto didn’t mean any harm in what he said, he just doesn’t have good manners and isn’t good at expressing himself,” Kakashi began. “Your grandfather told us about Kaiza. Like you, Naruto grew up without a father. In fact, Naruto grew up without any parents. He didn’t have a single friend either, until recently.”

Inari looked up, intrigued by what Kakashi had to say.

“Despite that, I’ve never seen Naruto sulk for too long. And I’ve never seen him cry or be depressed. Instead, he’s always eager and ready to go. He works hard to be acknowledged and do the right thing. He has a dream that he is willing to fight for. He probably got tired of crying, he decided to be strong instead – like Kaiza, like your father. Naruto probably understands you more than most. What Naruto said earlier, he’s probably told himself that same thing, over and over again.”

Kakashi got up to leave then, having said the piece he wanted to say. He didn’t know if it made an impact, if the kid was old enough to really get what he had said. He only knew that Inari stayed out there the rest of the night, staring out at the water, all sorts of thoughts swirling through his head.

* * *

For the next three days, things were quiet. Tazuna and his crew began to build the bridge, it’s long metal reach stretching out over the water. It was amazing how quickly they worked. They set up a guard of three – Kakashi and two genin at the bridge while another stayed behind to train, keeping vigilant. They were each taking shifts. On that third day, Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke were watching Tazuna order about his crew of men, when all of Kakashi’s worst suspicions came true.

There were a series of short bursts and screams – they all ran forward to see three of Tazuna’s crew all laying down, gripping bleeding wounds. And then a familiar mist rolled in…

“Sasuke, Sakura! It’s Zabuza, he’s coming back,” Kakashi yelled and directed them in formation, a three-man guard around Tazuna.

“Sakura, the mist,” Kakashi said.

“Yes,” Sakura said, concentrating her chakra and making the hand signs needed to undo the genjutsu. For a moment, the fog dissipated and Kakashi looked around desperately for Zabuza but saw now sign of him, and then the fog rolled back in, obscuring his long range vision. “I’m sorry, the genjutsu is much stronger now.”

“Dammit,” Kakashi muttered to himself and then louder, “That’s okay, concentrate on protecting Tazuna.”

And then a voice, out of a mist, with a wicked touch, “Sorry to have kept you waiting Kakashi, I see you have those brats with you again.”

And suddenly they were surrounded by Zabuzas, five of them in total, each one with its own sword and glaring set of eyes.

“And look, this one’s trembling,” the clone in front of Sasuke said, noting the way the kunai in Sasuke’s hand shook.

Sasuke smirked at him, “Only with the excitement of how much I’m going to beat you.”

“Sasuke, Sakura” Kakashi said quietly, and then as the Zabuza clones swung their swords, Sasuke and Sakura jumped out, spinning around the circle of clones with kunais out, slashing at each of them in quick succession and landing back in their original spots. The clones all fell into puddles of water.

“Oh, you’ve trained the kiddies up over the last week,” Zabuza’s voice said, this time, stepping out of the mist further from them. And beside Zabuza was the boy, the one in the mask. So Kakashi was right, it was a trick, and the masked boy and Zabuza were in together.

“I can’t have you making fun of my students, Zabuza,” Kakashi said, knowing his encouragement could boost them, “Sasuke is the number one rookie in the Leaf Village, and Sakura is the smartest kunoichi of her graduating class. Don’t underestimate them like you did before.”

“Number one rookie, huh. It looks like you may have a rival, Haku,” Zabuza said, directed at the boy. “Get the raven-haired boy. I’ll handle Kakashi and the girl.”

And with that, both Zabuza and Haku were launching toward them. Haku looked like he was spinning, a whirlwind headed in Sasuke’s direction. Sasuke braced himself, clutching at the kunai in his hand. He threw out his kunai but the boy dodged back to avoid it. As he did, Sasuke spun around to land a swift quick in the gut. That kid was fast, but Sasuke was faster. Sasuke dodged a hit as the boy came after him again, and suddenly there was a blinding light, a flashing set of walls surrounding him.

Behind him, Zabuza swung his sword out at Sakura and Kakashi, both who dodged out of the way with quick jumps. As she tumbled back down, Sakura threw out a few kunai, which lodged themselves into Zabuza’s gut. He melted away, another clone.

“Then where’s the real Zabuza?” Kakashi said, seeing how Sakura had taken out the clone. He looked toward Sasuke and the boy just as a set of mirrors flashed into existence, a domed expanse that surrounded Sasuke and the boy. Just beyond the, between the flashes of mirrors, Kakashi saw Zabuza’s familiar shape.

“Instructor Kakashi, what is that?” Sakura said, just as alarmed by the sudden stack of mirrors as Kakashi.

Kaskashi’s voice was hesitant, and then unsure, “I don’t know.”

And then he watched as the boy melted inside of the mirrors, his reflection suddenly in every surface that surrounded Sasuke. And then a swift lifting of the hands, all reflections at the same time, let out a torrent of needles that poured into Sasuke, a scream escpaing from his lips.

“Sasuke!” Sakura yelled, the agony of his scream cutting fear into her bones. She rushed forward without thinking, launching he kunai at the mirrored dome. But one of the reflections was suddenly solid, jumping out to grab the kunai and launching it back at her. Sakura flipped to dodge it, landing back in front of Tazuna.

“He’s so fast,” she said. She watched at the solid form began to melt back into the reflection, but as it did a shuriken came out of nowhere, knocking the solid shape it the head, knocking the boy out of the mirror. And then, moving through the air in a flash of orange, Naruto was standing there!

* * *

Back at Tsunami’s house, she was cleaning up from breakfast that morning when she heard it, a shuffling of feet behind her. Before she even had time to react, a pair of arms was wrapping around her, pulling her into a hold she could not escape. She looked back, struggling and screaming, at the ninja who was suddenly grabbing her.

“Let go of me!” she screamed, trying to break free.

“Sorry lady, but the boss wants Tazuna’s daughter, said it would keep it interesting,” the other ninja said, the one standing beside the put a cloth to her face, a sweet smell filled up her nose, and she passed out.

“Mom!” Inari shouted. He was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, had saw the whole thing. Already, hot tears were spilling down his face, fear making him shake.

“Oh, another hostage,” the larger ninja said, turning the chloroform-soaked cloth to Inari.

“One’s enough,” the smaller ninja said, throwing Tsunami’s passed out form over his shoulder, “Besides, I don’t think this crybaby is going to give us any problems.”

And he was right. Inari let them pass, too paralyzed with fear to stop the ninjas from taking his Mom. Instead, he just stood there, heart pounding as they walked out the door. But then Inari thought about what Kakashi had said to him, about Naruto, about he had probably told himself to stop crying. He remembered watching Naruto and the other ninjas over the past few days, how they were relentless in their training, even though the situation was hopeless. And he remembered Kaiza, fighting until his last breath, never crying, just trying to be good. Inari was only eight years old, but he knew he wouldn’t be young forever, knew he couldn’t cry forever. At some point, he had to grow up, he had to be brave, he had to try to be a hero.

With his tears still drying on his face, Inari ran out the door, after the ninjas. 

“Wait!” Inari screamed at them as they walked toward the dock, “Stay away from my mom!” 

Inari was terrified, his heart pounding, but he knew this was the right thing to do, knew this is what Kaiza would have wanted. He couldn’t give up.

“Oh,” one of the ninjas said, both of them stopping, “It’s just the crybaby from before.”

“Let go of her!” Inari screamed and ran toward them, yelling the whole time.

In a quick flash, the ninjas put Tsunami down and pulled at their swords, ready to slash the boy in half. And they did, but instead of blood, there was a soft thumping, pieces of a log falling to the dock.

“Sorry I was late,” a voice came, and they turned to see a young, blonde ninja. The boy and woman in his arms. He sat them down gently and turned toward them.

Naruto had been taking a break from training, decided he had enough of it. He wanted some real action, he was gonna head to the bridge with the rest. But as he passed Tsunami’s house, he saw the ninjas carrying her, had seen Inari screaming at them, and knew he had to step in.

The ninjas rushed at him, pulling their long swords out. Naruto threw two shuriken at them, which they easily deflected with their swords. But it was just a distraction, and behind them two clones appeared, knocking both the ninjas out with harsh kicks to the neck.

“Woah!” Inari said as Naruto’s clones disappeared, “You saved me!”

Inari was in shock that it had happened, that for a moment, he felt the success of what a hero could accomplish.

Naruto smiled at him, “You were doing pretty good before I got here.”

He reached out a hand and patted Inari’s head, “I’m sorry about what I said the other day. You’re not a crybaby, you’re strong.”

Inari felt a heat push through his face, his heart softening, and then tears spilled out of his eyes then, “I didn’t want to cry again. I don’t want to be a crybaby.”

Naruto laughed, “It’s okay to cry when you’re happy. I have to get to the bridge, there’s probably trouble there too, but I’ll leave the rest to you.”

Inari watched Naruto jump off, and then slowly but surely, pulled him Mom back inside, settling her into her bed. And as he did, he thought about all the people in the Land of Waves, all the people who he loved and who Kaiza had loved too, who Kaiza had died trying to protect.

If there was trouble at the bridge, that meant that Naruto and the other ninjas would need all the help they could get. Inari made sure his mom was secure and then ran out the door. It was time the people in the Land of Waves learned how to be their own heroes.

* * *

“Naruto!” Sakura yelled as she saw his form land.

“Don’t worry, now that I’m here, everything is alright,” Naruto said, a bright grin on his face.

Haku, knocked out of his dome of mirrors, stood up slowly, “Zabuza, I can take them both. Please don’t interfere.”

“Perfect,” Zabuza said, and suddenly, he wasn’t standing behind the dome anymore, he was standing right between Sakura and Kakashi, taking aim for Tazuna.

Kakashi was quick to notice this, kicking Zabuza back, “Sakura, we have to stay here to protect Tazuna, we have to trust that Naruto and Sasuke can handle Haku together.”

And then, both fights began. It’s easier to understand fights as singular things, imagining each an individual scene with its own audience. In the stories you’ve heard, ninjas are such good spectators, but in truth, ninjas are quick to hop into action. Both fights on the bridge that day happened at once, at the same time, the sounds of Sasuke and Naruto facing off against Haku happening overlapping with the sounds of Sakura and Kakashi facing Zabuza. The bridge fight that day was a confusing jumble of different moves and stories and so much happening at once. Here is my attempt at making sense of it.

Naruto looked curiously at the boy in front of him, recognizing him, “So Kakashi was right, it was a trick.”

“It’s simply part of a ninja’s duty, to deceive” Haku said, and scooted back quickly, a single step to dodge a kunai thrown between the crack in the mirrors. Sasuke was recovering from the needles and had thought he could use the moment Haku was off his guard to distract him, but Haku had dodged it so easily.

“I haven’t forgotten about you,” Haku said, and then melted back into the mirrors. Naruto looked at the direction the kunai had come from and realized Sasuke was trapped underneath the dome and bleeding badly. And that guy, Haku, had just somehow joined him in there. Naruto needed to find a way in there.

Sasuke watched as Haku bled back into the mirror, appearing in one reflection and then suddenly all of them, gripping needles, just like before. And then in a flash, the needles were released, slicing through him again. His screams weren’t as loud as before, he bit his tongue. If only he could figure out how this jutsu worked, so he could work around it.

“Sasuke, I’m here for you,” Naruto said, suddenly there beside him. While Haku had rained needles down on Sasuke, Naruto had snuck into a crack in the mirrors, thinking he could help.

“You idiot,” Sasuke said, gasping in pain, “You would have been more helpful outside the dome of mirrors.”

While all of this happened, Zabuza turned back again, setting his sights on Tazuna. Kakashi jumped in front of the old man, reaching for his headband. He knew Naruto and Sasuke could only last so long, he needed to make this fight quick.

When Zabuza saw him reaching for his headband, he increased his speed, meeting Kakashi’s hand with a kunai, locking it in place. “Come on Kakashi, you think I’m going to let use that thing again.”

“You’re the first ninja who will have ever seen it twice,” Kakashi answered tensely. And as he did, Zabuza let out a yelp. Sakura had snuck behind Zabuza, slashing at the back of his legs with her kunai.

“You little brat!” Zabuza yelled, ripping around with his sword out. Sakura ducked below it and ran around him, landing in a defensive stance in front of Tazuna. It gave Kakashi the time and movement he needed and when Zabuza turned to face him again, the bright of Kakashi’s Sharigan was shining out at him.

He took a quick glance behind Zabuza, at the ice dome where he saw flashes of blue, orange, and green and then a swirl of flames, a flashing bright light, both Naruto and Sasuke screaming. His Sharigan didn’t recognize it, couldn’t read it. It must be a kekkei genkai.

Zabuza swung his fists at him, and Kakashi dodged, landing a quick hit on Zabuza’s jaw as he pulled back. They moved like this for a few moments, swiping at each other, with a few hits and a few misses.

“That’s quite the bloodline trait your friend has,” Kakashi said, as they continued to dance, as Zabuza would call it.

“Oh, you like him,” Zabuza said, swinging his sword at Kakashi. Kakashi jumped over its long swing. “I found him a few years ago. The last of a powerful clan. Been training him for years now. I’ve acquired such a useful tool. Unlike the scrap you’re carrying around.”

As he said this, a clone appeared, and Kakashi’s Sharigan matched this, two versions of them fighting side by side. Then a kunai came flying from the right, hitting the clone of Zabuza in the face, melting it away in water. Kakashi and his clone took advantage of this and swung around together, kicking Zabuza with enough force that he flew back.

Behind him, Sakura stood in front of Tazuna, a glare on her face and her hand flexing, “Next time I’ll hit the real one.”

Kakashi’s approached Zabuza, his clone disappearing. He lifted his leg and slammed it down on Zabuza’s chest, “Don’t call my students scrap.”

Under the dome, Sasuke was pissed that Naruto had ruined any prospect of an inside-outside team up, but knew he had to work with what he got. He had enough chakra, and an idea to melt the mirrors. He made the motions for a fireball jutsu and aimed them at the mirrors, but nothing happened, none of the mirrors melted and none of the reflections even flinched.

“I’ll find the real one,” Naruto said and made his own motions, a torrent of orange-clad clones suddenly appearing and launched at each of the individual mirrors.

But just as suddenly as Naruto’s clones appeared, they all disappeared, a bright light of smoke pushing them all out and then Naruto and Sasuke were both hit with an onslaught of needles, their screams filling the air.

“I’m fighting to protect someone I care about,” Haku said, the reflections melting, emerging, and re-melting into the mirrors, “Don’t think I’ll make it that easy for you.”

“Well I’m fighting for my dream too,” Naruto said, jumping up. He frantically looked around, trying to catch which of these reflections was the real one. In the pit of his stomach, he felt the burning again, like he had felt days ago, when he was frozen in fear. He let the burning push him harder.

“A dream,” Haku’s reflections said gently, “That must be nice. I’d rather not kill you guys, and I’d rather you not kill me. But if you’re going to come after me, I won’t hesitate to do what a ninja must. I’ll do whatever I can to protect Zabuza.”

Naruto had enough, the burning in his stomach racing now. He made the motions for shadow clones and together, they launched toward the mirrors. Just like last name, Haku’s reflections took out the shadow clones as quickly as their appeared. But Naruto didn’t stop, just kept making more and more clones.

Sasuke watched in disbelief, “You’re going to waste all your chakra if you keep doing that, you idiot!”

Haku didn’t understand, didn’t see how the boy could be this persistent even though he knew he was no match for him. But at the same time, he did understand. The boy said he was fighting for his dream, something he probably cared about as much as Haku cared about Zabuza. Haku knew Naruto would never give up.

And then Haku hit the real Naruto, needles into his stomach, arms, and legs.

“Naruto!” Sasuke yelled and as he did, Fate knew it was the moment. She wove in the newest string, bright, definitive, and shining red. Chance wrapped itself around it, a blue sheen tightening this new, suddenly changed thing.

Sasuke screamed, a sudden white hot pain was tearing at his eyes, a deep knife of terror through his throat and into his body. He gripped his eyes and yelled louder, and then the pain vanished, in a one final terrifying flash.

Sasuke opened his eyes and suddenly, everything around him looked so much clearer. Sasuke’s Sharigan had activated.

Beyond the dome, and before Sasuke found a new part of himself, Zabuza rolled away from Kakashi’s second kick and pulled himself up.

“I realized something when we were last fighting,” Zabuza said, “Your Sharigan can’t see everything.”

And with that, Zabuza disappeared, and the fog, the misty genjutsu that covered the bridge, thickened, whiter and brighter, until Kakashi could barely see in front of him. He heard a spinning sound, shuriken coming at them from above. He easily knocked them out of the way with his kunai, and then a slipping sound, Zabuza appearing behind him.

Kakashi spun around, launching his own shuriken at him. Zabuza dodged them. “By disappearing into this fog, I make that perceptive eye useless.”

And then Zabuza kicked Kakashi in the chest, throwing him back. Kakashi landed as best as he could and looked around for Sakura, for Tazuna, for Zabuza, but it was impossible. He could barely see his own hands.

“Sakura!” he shouted.

“Yes, Instructor Kakashi!” her voice came from the fog, sounding grainy and far away.

“See what you can do!” Kakashi shouted back.

Sakura took a deep breath. It was up to her to make this fog disappear, to make it possible for Kakashi to use his Sharigan. But she could barely see herself, had completely lost Kakashi, Zabuza, and the enclosed glass dome as soon as the fog rolled in. But she could hear the sounds of their fighting, could hear a deadly scream from Sasuke far off in the distance. The only reason she hadn’t lost Tazuna is that she had grabbed his hands once the fog started rolling in.

She had to do something to help them. When she had tried to get rid of the genjutsu earlier, she had felt it, how much stronger it was then a few days before. And now this, the air was heavy with it. She felt the way the illusion was weighing her down. But she tried, concentrated her chakra, struggled against the weight of Zabuza’s strength.

Chance and Fate nudged Sakura along, pushing threads in her direction. And the fog lightened, patchy bits here and there, easing away the confusion. It cleared up just in time for her to see Zabuza heading straight for her, sword ready to cut her in half.

But then Kakashi was suddenly there, taking the brunt of the slice across his chest, cutting through his vest and shirt.

Back at the dome, Sasuke didn’t understand what was happening, couldn’t see his own face, sharp red eyes now staring out at him. But he was able to see, with perfect clarity, as if things were in slow motion, Haku – the real Haku, not just a reflection, jumping from one mirror to the next. And he was heading toward Naruto, already knocked out on the ground, a fresh set of needles in his hand. Sasuke started running.

Naruto stirred just in time to see Sasuke take the brunt of the needles, his red eyes widening in shock, and then turning black, and then turning dull. Sasuke fell to the ground, all the blood loss from these hits and all the ones previously catching up to him. Even the Sharigan couldn’t save him from that.

“Naruto…keep fighting,” Sasuke managed to mumble in Naruto’s direction, just before his eyes closed

And just like that the burning in Naruto’s stomach, which had been teasing at him over the last few encounters, beating around, suddenly flushed all over him. Naruto felt like he was on fire, the burning terrible and horrible all at the same time. He was filled with more anger than he had ever felt in his young life, more anger than he could even describe.

As annoying as he was, Sasuke was his friend. Fate pushed and prodded and spun at the anger in Naruto a little bit more, weaving red strings this way and that. Chance danced around her, his blue threads spinning so quickly that red and blue came together, a twisting of purple ina sharp motion. And then their work was done, the seal, broken.

A sick, red chakra cloaked Naruto and spun up into the air. It propelled Naruto’s body up and forward, the needles lodged in him pushing out of his skin, all the cuts they left behind smoking and healing. Naruto didn’t know what was happening anymore. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t breathe. He only felt pain, and burning, and anger. And the chakra, perceptible when chakra should never be, rose in to a red, menacing form of a fox, and bolted told Haku.

Naruto shattered the dome of mirrors, knocking Haku back, covered in cuts from ripping mirrors, his mask shattered from the hit Naruto had landed on him. He looked up to see Naruto diving at him again, red rage following behind him. But then, just as suddenly as he felt anger overtake him, Naruto felt it draining out, and he stopped his fist, just short of Haku’s face.

While this happened, Kakashi gripped at his chest “Sakura, keep trying to get rid of the genjutsu.”

Sakura’s was heart was racing, she couldn’t imagine how Kakashi wasn’t ripped in half, but she had to concentrate, “I will.”

More and more of the fog lifted and Kakashi and Zabuza went after each other once again. But then suddenly, something made them both hesitate, a roar of energy beyond them. At the same moment that Sakura cleared all of the fog, they saw it. A sudden burst of red, the sound of shattering glass, and Naruto, covered in red, knocking Haku away.

Kakashi felt dread deep in his stomach, there was something familiar about this chakra, evil and dark. A chackra Kakashi knew. It was the Nine-Tailed Fox, somehow, leaking out of Naruto, somehow this had happened, here, and now. It would mean it was over for all of them. Zabuza was distracted too, having never felt something so menacing. But as suddenly as the chakra was there, it was gone, Naruto stopping in front of Haku. Kakashi didn’t even allow himself to be relieved, knew that this was his chance to act now.

He pulled out a summoning scroll and summoned all of his ninja dogs. They were on Zabuza in a second, holding him still in front of Kakashi. Zabuza cursed, distracted too much by whatever was going on with the kid. He struggled against the ninja dogs, but they bit down harder, holding him in place.

And in front of him, it looked like Kakashi held lightening in his hands, a swirling ball of destruction aiming right for his chest.

Beyond them, Naruto pulled his shaking fist away from Haku’s face. He had no idea what just happened, how he got out of the dome, or how he had ended up here.

“You thought I had killed your friend,” Haku said gently, coughing up a bit of blood, “I understand. You wanted to kill me. This is what being a ninja is, being a tool for those we love.”

“I’m not a tool for anyone,” Naruto said roughly, still confused by how he ended up here.

“Then you’re not a ninja,” Haku said, and with that, he dove away. Fate was quick in pulling the boy away and Chance made sure he landed where he needed to be. Haku landed in front of Zabuza just in time, the ball of lightening in Kakashi’s hand hitting and then slicing through his chest, tearing through him in one fell swoop. Kakashi hadn’t even seen the kid appear, and suddenly he was there, taking the hit for Zabuza, dying for him.

Zabuza smiled at Kakashi, “I told you I had better tools than you.”

Kakashi pulled his hand back in horror, Haku’s blood spilling away with it, “The boy is dead and that’s all you have to say.”

“You did good Haku,” Zabuza said darkly, and then dove at Kakashi with his sword out. Kakashi jumped away, taking Haku with him. Kakashi laid the kid down, closed his eyes. Haku, whoever he was, deserved better than serving a monster like Zabuza.

Kakashi had gotten a brief glimpse of the scene as he jumped. He had seen that Sasuke was on the ground, that Naruto was no longer surrounded by that menacing chakra, that Sakura no longer had to concentrate to hold off the genjutsu, it was gone. 

“All of you stay out of this, take care of each other, this is my battle!” Kakashi said, and dove toward Zabuza Something was pushing him, something he couldn’t quite identify, like threads in his mind telling only he could win this fight. Fate and Chance flexed this thought a little more.

Tazuna, Sakura, and Naruto gathered around Sasuke. Sakura cried out when she saw him, a tremor going through her heart. Tazuna felt a wave of pain, had this kid really died for him? And Naruto, remembered, with sudden clarity, what had taken over him, how the glass dome had shattered, how Haku had been taken out. He looked over at where Haku lay, remembered the last thing Haku had said to him, about ninjas being tools, and thought about everything that Mizuki had told him months ago. But before Naruto could think too deeply on that, Sakura was feeling at Sasuke’s neck, was telling them that he had a heartbeat, that it was faint, was crying that he was still alive. His friend, Sasuke, was alive. And the only thing left to do was to watch the final fight.

Zabuza was slower this time, the bites the ninja dogs had taken out of him had weakened him, but it was something else too. There was something off about the way Zabuza was fighting, something that made Kakashi feel like Zabuza had already given up. He lodged two kunai into Zabuza’s right arm, and then dodging one final fling of Zabuza’s sword, he lodged two kunai into his left arm. Zabuza’s sword, so huge and menacing, fell to the ground with a deafening clack.

Kakashi landed in front of him, “It’s over Zabuza. But I think you knew that. I think it was over for you the moment that boy died.”

“Oh, well wouldn’t that be a pretty sentiment,” came a voice suddenly and standing in front of them was a stout man in a business suit, a cane in his hand and dark glasses covering his eyes. Behind him was a wall of ninjas, each of them looked menacing and dark in their own way. 

“I’ll be disappointed in you if that’s the case Zabuza, I thought you better than to get attached to,” and at this, the man cast a pathetic glare in the direction of Haku’s body, “…things.”

“That’s Gato,” Tazuna said, “it’s never good when he’s here.”

Gato approached Haku’s body, pushed it with his cane, “Yes, he really is a pathetic thing.”

At this Naruto rose up and ran toward Zabuza, Kakashi grabbed him and held him back, “Why are you letting him do that? Haku died for you and you’re letting him treat him like garbage.”

“Haku was just a tool to me, just like Gato thinks I’m his tool,” Zabuza said. And with that he leaned over, gripping the handle of one of the handles of the kunais in his arm in his mouth and running toward Gato. Gato yelled and ran back, diving behind the crowd of ninjas in front of him.

Zabuza didn’t hesitate, dove into the crowd of ninjas and slashed out at them, cutting throats, arms, stomachs, whatever he could get the kunai in his mouth to land on. And all the while, they stabbed at him too, swords and cleavers and kunais and shuriken burning into his skin. But there was a break and he made it through, and Gato was there, standing on the edge where the bridge ended. Zabuza launched at him, pushing the kunai into his gut, and Gato fell over the edge of the bridge with a scream, landing in the water in a sharp hit. And then Zabuza collapsed.

The crowd of ninjas turned back to Team 7 and Tazuna, anger spread across their faces. But an arrow, short and stout, flew over Team 7’s head, landing at the foot of the crowd of ninjas Zabuza hadn’t managed to take out.

Team 7 and Tazuna turned around, looked at what to seemed to be every single person who lived in the Land of Waves. They were armed with pitchforks and kitchen knives and paddles and whatever other weapon they could get their hands on. And standing in front of them, Kaiza’s crossbow too big for his body, was Inari.

“To get to the Land of Waves, you’ll have to come through us!” Inari shouted. The crowd behind him cheered and looked ready to run forward.

Tazuna smiled, his grandson looked so much like Kaiza in that moment.

The ninjas Gato had hired scattered then, diving off the bridge and jumping on the boat they had came here on. Gato was dead, there was no reason for them to be here anymore, and they weren’t going to face off the entire Land of Waves without pay.

And behind all of them, still moving, was Zabuza. Everyone watched, as the demon of the mist, covered in blood, weapons still moving out him, dragged himself slowly forward, pulled himself with staggering breaths until he was beside Haku’s body.

“Haku,” Zabuza said, reaching his hand out to touch the gentle boys face. And as he did, his eyes closed, his breath slowed, and he was dead. 

* * *

They buried Haku and Zabuza’s bodies on a cliff, far away from where they hand died. Kakashi plunged Zabuza’s great sword into the ground as a marker.

“Instructor Kakashi,” Sakura said softly, “Is being a ninja really about what they said, about being a tool?”

“Sakura, and Naruto, Sasuke,” Kakashi said, remembering the way, in the end, Zabuza had let himself care for Haku. Kakashi would never do that, he would care his students now. “Ninjas aren’t tool unless they decide they’re one. We’ll never know what made these two think that way, but take this as a lesson. Your enemies, your friends, everyone you encounter, they’ll always be more complex than you imagine them to be. The world isn’t simple, and neither are the people in it. We can never what stories they held.”

And Kakashi was right. They would never know the true tale of Zabuza and Haku, of the bond forged between the young boy and the rogue ninja who saved him. It’s not a story that Team 7 was ever privy to, though many like to imagine there’s time in battle for the sharing of stories, the understanding of woes, the time to make an impression in the heat of violence. This isn’t the truth. Fighting is grueling and hard and ugly. It rarely leaves space for tragic back stories.

Though, over the next week, Team 7 and Tazuna’s family shared many stories as the bridge was completed. Mostly, the story of Inari, who riled the entire island, running from house to house in the Land of Waves, begging its people to protect the land they loved. They told Sasuke stories of what happened after he was knocked out. They told stories about their lives back in the Leaf Village, which they suddenly missed. And more and more and more stories, all the good, bad, and in between.

And eventually, it was time to go. The bridge was complete, and no one had come to stop them. Gato was dead, and the Land of Waves finally free.

As the ninja walked over the bridge, as they wished goodbye to Tazuna and Inari and Tsunami, Tazuna looked at the fading boy in orange, the wily kid who he had no faith in just two weeks before. He looked at the bridge, decided that it needed a name. A name that was a story too, for the ninja who had taught his grandson to be a hero, who had really, in the end, been the reason they were all saved.

* * *

Each member of Team 7 felt different when they returned to the Leaf Village. Kakashi felt more connected to his team than ever. He felt proud and hopeful and so ready to see what they would become. Sakura felt a little lost, like both Naruto and Sasuke had gone through great changes she couldn’t begin to imagine. Sasuke felt excited, his Sharigan finally present, his moment to face his brother looming so much closer.

And Naruto, Naruto felt too much. The night he returned, Naruto lay in his room, remembering every moment that the burning at took over him, every second that it eaten up every single thing inside of him and turned it into anger. He could have killed Haku, he could have killed them all, he still felt the potential destruction lingering in the pit of him stomach.

“I’m the Nine-Tailed Fox,” he said, in a whisper, in the dark in his room. And as he said this, he started to cry, hot burning painful tears spilling out. Naruto was crying because he was still lonely, despite how much his life had changed. He was crying, because Inari and so many others in the Land of Waves had gone through so much pain. He was crying because Sakura and Kakashi and Sasuke could have died at so many moments. He was crying because Haku, whoever he was, whoever his story was, had died for someone who seemed ungrateful. He was crying because maybe Zabuza did care but Haku would never know. He was crying because he hated it, the burning anger he had felt, the part of himself he had never wanted to think about again was suddenly here and he could feel it, the Nine-Tailed Fox, inside of him. And he would never have a moment where he couldn’t feel it again.

Naruto wouldn’t let himself cry for long. He would make himself stop, he would ignore it, would use that pain to work harder, to become better, to not be the Nine-Tailed Fox’s tool, to be his own person, to be his own hero. Naruto Uzumaki wasn’t a crybaby, he just needed a moment.

* * *

All of the Rookie Nine learned a lot on their missions, all of their stories overlapping with the stories of others, all of them realizing just how dangerous it was to be a ninja. But have you noticed something important about these last three tales?

On every team, there is always a member who shines above the rest. Their potential may not always be obvious at the start, but it is the start that gets them there. Did you notice them, Hinata, Shikamaru, and Naruto, as the shining strands made fresh in their first missions?

The forces of the universes, they decide the paths that these three will take, but here are the facts: In ten years, during the Fourth Great Ninja War, Hinata Hyuga will kill a ninja many have thought of as unkillable, whose fear and terror wreaked havoc on the ninja world for far too long. She will do this alone, in a sense, but Time and Chance are on her side. Shikamaru Nara will be the most important general in the in that same war, so important that people will say the war would have been lost without him, Time and Fate of whole armies shaped by his quick mind and brave heart. And Naruto Uzumaki is the key to undo it all, the woven efforts of Time, Fate, and Chance, with a little extra work from Death, Life, and Space too. Naruto Uzumaki is the boy who takes us back, to the moment Kaguya first bit into the fruit.

But they have so much more growing to do first, so many more missions to take, so many more people to see and change, so much more to learn. Won’t you watch them grow with me?


	9. (Between) The Ninja Villages

Now, let’s take a pause. Let’s make it short, I hope you don’t mind.

Before we dive back into _Here_ , you need to know more about the ninja villages. It’s important, to know all the forces that would suddenly begin to converge around the Rookie Nine over the coming months, the Chunnin Exams in fast motion.

Hashirama and Madara didn’t mean to, but they started a trend. From the moment those two friends made ninja villages a reality, it became a dream for everyone else. And just as people rushed to claim lands and names millennia before them, they suddenly rushed to make their own ninja villages.

Some clans claimed their own small ninja villages all on their own, some came together by ninja type, with similar powers pairing up in similar places. Some villages admitted non-ninjas, some did not. Some villages were small, others large. Some made great partnerships with the diamyos of the land, others ignored them all together. Some villages rose and fell, not made to last. Some faced the test of time. The largest villages were called the Five Great Ninja nation and took Kages as their leaders.

Konoha, sometimes called the Leaf Village, you know, the lush village in the Land of Fire, filled with both ninjas and non-ninjas alike. It started small and spread further and further, everyone wanting their own piece of the first village, everyone wanting a chance to succeed. Full of sunshine and lush green forests and what many consider the strongest ninjas in the land, Madara and Hashirama setting that precedent. Hashirama was their first Hokage.

Iwa, sometimes called the Stone Village, came next, carving itself into the rocky mountains in the Land of Earth. This village was not nearly as sprawling as Konoha, but what it lacked in size it made up in might. A village made up stubborn ninjas and rock-solid attitudes, full of people who never doubted themselves. They called their kage the Tscuhikage.

Kumo, sometimes called the Cloud Village, sprang up around the same time. This village lives in the sky, high atop a range of mountains in the Land of Lightning. Hard to find and with ninjas even harder to pin down, Kumo is not a village to be messed with. They called their kage the Raikage.

Suna, sometimes called the Sand Village, started a few years later. Settled deep in the desert and far away from all the other villages, Suna makes its home in the Land of Winds. More fortified and distant than any other major ninja village, the ninjas in Suna are a unique sort. Tough and rugged and often decorated with trauma. They called their kage the Kazekage.

Kiri, sometimes called the Mist Village, was the final addition to follow Madara and Hashirama’s leads. Covered in stone and vegetation, bristled by a constant drizzle of its misty air, Kiri gives even the most experienced of ninjas the creeps. The ninjas who hail from here bring that same sort of dread everywhere they go. The called their kage the Mizukage.

Of course, these are just the five great ninja villages, with kages and systems and schooling and economies all similar to the first design. But there are so many smaller villages, smaller outlets, and smaller minds that rejected that first design, that built ninja societies the way they imagined, that look at the five great ninja villages with both scorn and fear.

Don’t forget about the Rain Village, industrialized and named for its constant, dripping downpour. The Star Village, tiny and miniscule, where ninjas make lives in the ruins of a fallen meteorite. The Stone Village, with its infinity to attract those with kekkei genkai. The Grass Village, overflowing with lush forest, bamboo, and mushrooms. The Frost Village, covered in a perpetual snow. The Waterfall Village, built under the protective force of its falls. The Moon Village and the hereditary system that defines its leadership. The Hot Water Village and their drive for pacifism. The Snow Village and their technology beyond compare. Or the Sound Village, with its new and dark intentions.

Long ago, villages held their own chuunin exams, individual tests to past ninjas through rankings. But now, chunnin exams are a crossover event, held by a single village every two years. And ninja from all over the world, from village great and small, would come.

The ninja world is vast and wide and so much more than any of our young heroes could imagine, although they got hints of it on their first missions. This may read like a list, a rambling of knowledge that you already know. And in truth, it is, but it is also important. The entire world is about to open up for the Rookie Nine, the spread of what ninjas are and what ninjas could be will suddenly be present and open for them. The forces of the universe pushing all these strands together, the villages and ninjas that will start to define the next arc of our story.


	10. (Here) Old Friends and New Tests

After their first missions, the rookies returned to the smaller, D-rank missions that they had before. But this time they approached them differently, all of them realizing the possibility of what they could do, knowing they needed time before they had another C-rank mission, knew that when it happened again, they could face it.

Time passed. Each team experienced it their own way.

Hinata and Kurenai, now living together, bonded in a way that neither of them could imagine, each caring for each other in small, comforting ways. Hinata had never known she could be so content, could be so at ease, especially in the place she lived. It was a feeling she hadn’t experienced in years, at least not in her own home. And Kurenai found that she was fiercely protective of the girl and impressed, every day, by the sheer amount of time that Hinata spent training and getting stronger. Kiba and Shino noticed the way Hinata had changed too. She was no longer gloomy or shy or scared to show her full strength, and they were happy to watch their teammate bloom in front of them. Of course, the team dinners they held helped, each of them getting to know each other a little more. Team 8 grew on each other like family, Chance giving them every opportunity to make it so.

Shikamaru spent more and more time with his dad, playing long games of Shogi. Some of them were silent, each of them lost in their own complex thoughts. Other games were full of conversations, Shikamaru asking his Dad about his younger years, learning about the Ino-Shika-Cho strategies that worked well, which ones only to use at certain times, which ones weren’t as successful. Something about his son had changed, Shikaku thought. He was still lazy and often complained, but there was a new openness that had never been there before. Shikamaru still wasn’t sure what he wanted, but he thought maybe he should start with the simple stuff, learn as much as he could about the formation he was born into, bring it back to his teammates. Chouji and Ino were happy with this, happy to see Shikamaru with a kind of life in his eyes. It wasn’t that his personality was any different, it was that he seemed to care about making their team better. They were happy to follow along. Asuma looked at all of it with admiring eyes, watched the way his students were becoming something new. Fate smiled down at her work, Team 10 stitched together closer and closer each day.

Naruto finally stopped crying, and the moment he did, he started training more, pushing himself further than he ever had. Their mission had shown him what he could be, all the best and terrible parts. Only Naruto wouldn’t accept the terrible parts. Sasuke embraced his new eyes, training every night until the point of exhaustion. He felt it so much more now, the possibility of the meeting Itachi so near. And Sakura kept training too, on her own and silently accompanying Sasuke in the mornings. She could feel her speed increasing, could feel her mind working faster, could feel herself catching up with her teammates, despite what they had hidden inside of them. And each of them saw what they themselves could do and what their teammates could do, the growing strength they all shared. Kakashi knew it was because they had seen death up close, had learned with it meant to be on the sidelines of much bigger, larger stories; this is why his team was growing so much. What Kakashi didn’t know what was the way that Fate and Chance danced around them, tying and untying and weaving and unweaving all the possible and impossible things that Team 7 could be.

Only a few months after they returned from their first big missions, six months after they graduated the academy, there was a sharp call in the sky. A falcon moving through the village, dropping parcels along the way. Each of them held a message, a summons, and a challenge that each of our teams would find themselves facing.

But for their teachers, it would just be a chance to catch up with old friends.

* * *

Asuma woke to the sound of a falcon calling, heard a shuffling outside the door. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and sure enough, it was the scroll he was expecting. He smiled to himself; he knew his students were ready.

A few blocks over, Kurenai awoke to the sounds of Hinata coming into the apartment, back from an early morning training session.

“Sorry I woke you,” Hinata said softly, “but this was on your doorstep, I think some type of bird dropped it off.”

Kurenai shook her head, casting off the dreams still fervent in her mind and grabbed the scroll from Hinata’s hand. She recognized the scroll immediately, knew what this would mean. It was time for her students to show themselves off.

Across the village, Kakashi stepped out his door, heading out for some groceries, but his foot landed on something hard instead. He lifted his foot, picked up the scroll that was now dented beneath it. Kakashi was surprised to see it, was never good at keeping track of the dates of these things. He thought of his students – this was the chance to see what they could really do.

A few hours later, Asuma, Kurenai, and Kakashi found themselves in the amphitheatre of the Kage building. They were not alone but joined by all the other Jounin instructors from all different years, and some chuunin too, most of them with government positions. The room was buzzing with conversations, greetings and friends catching up. It wasn’t often that so many ninjas gathered under one roof.

Kakashi sat beside Asuma and Kurenai, who were leaning their heads together in quiet conversation.

“Don’t let me interrupt,” Kakashi said with humor in his voice as he took his seat. They pulled back from the conversation; Asuma rolled his eyes at him.

“Isn’t that what you excel at Kakashi?” Asuma said, with a laugh. Kakashi and Kurenai knew what he was referring too and laughed too, remembering the awkwardness of that old moment, Kakashi accidentally barging in on them in delicate positions while trying to pay a visit to Asuma. They had all been embarrassed then, too young to laugh over the awkwardness of the situation, but they could now.

“Yeah, sure,” Kakashi said. “What were you chatting about?”

“One of Kurenai’s students is living with her,” Asuma said casually, but Kakashi knew him well enough to recognize the pride in his voice, “we were talking about that.”

Kakashi was surprised to hear this and knew there was probably a story behind it. But if any Jounin instructor would be willing to take one of their students in, it would be Kurenai. Kakashi imagined living with his students. Sakura and Sasuke he could probably handle, but Naruto would be a whole other story.

“Who is it?” Kakashi asked.

“Well I’m not exactly advertising it, for her sake, but it’s Hinata Hyuga,” Kurenai said, “And it’s really great. I think she’s doing really well, no longer living in that household.”

“What Kurenai means to say but is scared someone here might overhear her is that Hiashi Hyuga was an abusive prick who kicked his twelve-year old daughter out and now that she lives with Kurenai, her mental health is improving quite a lot,” Asuma said.

Kurenai rolled her eyes at him and then gave him an endearing smile, “Yes, to put it more plainly.”

Kakashi was surprised to hear this. Hiashi Hyuga was a stern man, someone even he was terrified by. He couldn’t imagine living in the same house as him, living with the Hyuga pressure on his shoulders. At the same time, Kakashi also couldn’t imagine Hiashi would go as far to abuse his daughter.

“Really?”

Kurenai was surprised that Kakashi didn’t expect this, with all the fucked-up shit that he had seen while he was an Anbu. He had to know that same stuff was also happening in the safety and comfort of the Leaf Village. But maybe meeting Eri had made her bitter, and Kurenai had never had the one-up on bitterness when it came to Kakashi.

“I don’t think it was physical, not yet. But a lot of psychological stuff, that girl has a lot of emotional baggage to sort through,” Kurenai said, dropping her eyes. Already she could feel Hinata getting better, but it was just so much to work through, more than Kurenai, with her relatively stable upbringing and average chunnin parents, could imagine. Her becoming a Jounin was the most exciting thing that had happened in her family lately.

“Well,” Kakashi said, “don’t we all?”

Ah, Kurenai thought, there’s the bitter Kakashi I know.

“Who else do you have?” Kakashi asked, curious. He hadn’t seen Kurenai, or Asuma for that matter, since the night they all went out to celebrate Kurenai becoming a Jounin, a little over six months ago. It had been just two weeks before they were all assigned Rookie teams. Though he was sure they kept up with each other, their dating never quite the secret they wanted it to be, Kakashi felt like he was playing catch up.

“Shino Aburame and Kiba Inuzuka, probably a distant cousin of yours,” she replied.

Kurenai was right. Kakashi’s grandfather, on his mother’s side, had been an Inzuka. It was the reason why he could summon some ninja dogs now and then, but it was nothing like the partnership those in the clan forged with their canines.

“They’re all really great,” Kurenai continued, “All shaping up to be great trackers, and they support each other a lot. The dynamic was strange at first but now it works, really works.”

Kakashi smiled as his friend gushed about her students. Kurenai really was the perfect person to be a Jounin instructor; she cared about her students in such a deep way.

“And what about you Asuma?” Kakashi asked.

“Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaki, and Chouji Akamichi,” Asuma said, pride in his voice too, a smile on his face.

“Wow,” Kakashi said, “you have the next generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, how does that feel?”

Asuma’s grin broke into a chuckle, “It’s a lot of pressure, if I’m being honest, but they’re good kids. When they get going, really working together, it’s like they can read each other’s minds, and not just because one of them can read others’ minds.”

“So, the formation lives up to its name?”

“Yeah,” Asuma said, “they have a lot to learn, but they really are great.”

“What about you?” Kurenai asked. “You’re giving us the shake down because you haven’t seen us in a few months, but we haven’t seen you either. Isn’t this the first time you’ve ever passed a team they offered you?”

Kakashi chuckled, “Yeah, it’s surprising, right? But it’s an interesting team. Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Hanaru, and Naruto Uzumaki.”

Asuma and Kurenai were taken aback, they didn’t realize that boy had graduated yet, didn’t realize he was on Kakashi’s team.

Kakashi saw their expressions, recognized the same kind of shock and disdain that he did on the average villager, who only knew Naruto as the Nine-Tailed Fox.

“Don’t give me that look, you’re both smarter than that,” Kakashi said incredulously, “Naruto Uzumaki is not the nightmare that people imagine him as. He’s just an innocent boy whose parents made a decision for him before he was born. A decision they died for, I might add. He’s a good kid, he doesn’t deserve the hate this village gives him.”

“Listen, I don’t think the boy’s a monster, I’m just surprised. Him and Sasuke Uchiha, on the same team,” Asuma said, wanting Kakashi to understand that he wasn’t like every other ignorant asshole in the village.

“It just seems like a lot of tragedy to deal with on one team,” Kurenai said, “the boy whose entire clan was murdered, the boy who has the Nine-Tailed Fox inside of him. It has to be a bit difficult.”

“Yeah, it is,” Kakashi said, “But you know, we’re ninjas and we like secrets and decrees and that doesn’t really come up often.”

After the mission a few months ago, Kakashi had reported to the Hokage privately, had told him about how he had felt and seen the Nine-Tailed Fox’s chakra, just for a moment. How terrifying it had been, how Naruto didn’t seem to know or didn’t want to talk about what had happened. Hiruzen was concerned, but ultimately decided that it too was worth keeping secret, to be ignored and held hostage by the village. Kakashi hadn’t brought it up sense.

“That’s true,” Asuma said, “I guess it makes it easier.”

“It helps that they’re a good set of kids. Sasuke Uchiha is like any Uchiha, talented and egotistical, with a lot of raw strength that he’s learning to shape. And Naruto Uzumaki is a fireball, I never know what to expect from the kid. And Sakura Haruno, she’s really smart and has a knack for genjutsu. In fact, I really should introduce her to you Kurenai,” Kakashi explained, realizing his voice held the same type of pride he had just heard from them.

“I’d love to meet a young girl with a knack for genjutsu,” Kurenai said with a smile, “We don’t come along often, you know.”

Kurenai knew what people in the village said about her, that she was one of the strongest genjutsu users in a few decades. It was something she was proud of, but she also realized more ninjas would be good at genjutsu if more of them cared about it. The ninja system really favored ninjutsu and taijutsu too much, at least for her tastes.

Kakashi opened his mouth to say something else but was interrupted by a shout and a green blur landing beside him.

“Kakashi Hatake!” the blur said, stilling into an image of man, with a shiny bowl cut and green bodysuit. The room went silent for a moment and everyone looked in his direction, but seeing it was Might Guy, they all went back to their own conversations.

Kakashi and the others chuckled; Guy always knew how to make an entrance.

“Hi Guy,” Kakashi said.

“My friend, it’s been too long since we’ve seen each other!” Guy said, his voice booming despite sitting right next to Kakashi.

“Yeah, I suppose it has,” Kakashi said, his voice dull and apathetic, at least compared to Guy’s.

“I have a new challenge for us,” Guy said, his voice lower but excited nonetheless, “If you’re up for it.”

“Sure,” Kakashi said, knowing this would be fun, whatever it was. He and Guy had an interesting friendship for sure, the friendly competition between them had been happening for almost twenty years now.

Before Guy could speak again, the conversations died down. The Hokage was in the room, walking across the stage with a handful of Jounin and Chunnin, all them, presumably, part of the teams putting on the exams. A few faces were familiar, 

The room was quiet when Hiruzen spoke, “Thank you all for joining me. As you know, the Chunnin Exams are upon us, with Konoha hosting for the first time in a long while. I could give you the usual speech about what these exams mean for village relations, but I’m sure you know that already. Instead, I’ll just say this. These exams are our chance to show the other villages what we’re made of. There has been a lot of doubt thrown at the Leaf Village since the Nine-Tails attack twelve years ago, and the Uchiha Massacre four years ago. This is our chance to show everyone that it didn’t destroy us, that we’re stronger than ever.”

The audience, made of those who had experienced the Nine-Tails attack and fall out from the later Uchiha Massacre firsthand, knew it exactly what he was talking about. There had been Chunnin and Jounin exams since there, but never ones hosted by the Leaf Village itself, so making sure they presented a strong front was important. Their village had been plagued by disaster for too many years.

“Yes, well, thank you Lord Hokage,” a man said, stepping beside Hiruzen. He was tall, skinnier than the average ninja, and covered his eyes with a pair of small, black sunglasses. His voice was ridiculously formal as he spoke, even more so than the Hokage’s, “We have already gathered team submissions from the other villages. This year we will have 4 teams from the Waterfall Village, 5 teams from the Grass Village, 7 teams from the Rain Village, 10 teams from the Sand Village, and 1 team from an up and coming village, the Sound Village.”

The man went on to explain the logistics of the teams – each team was a three-man squad of genin. Some villages, like them, were sending pre-formed teams who worked together frequently, others were sending teams who were put together to fit the parameters of the exam. He babbled some more, about logistics and numbers and timelines. Most of the ninjas in the audience ignored this, having heard explanations of Chunnin exams many, many times.

Kurenai leaned over and whispered to Asuma, Kakashi, and Guy, “Do you think Ebisu will ever learn how to be interesting?”

Asuma and Kakashi let out soft chuckles and glanced up at Ebisu as he spoke. He was just as awkward and by-the-book as he had been when they were younger, a common subject of their friendly teasing.

“You guys are too hard on him,” Guy said, his voice very much not a whisper. On the stage, Ebisu flushed and stumbled over his words.

“You’re just saying that because he was your old teammate,” Kakashi said, his voice low, the appropriate volume for a whispered conversation.

“Honestly,” Asuma whispered with a sly grin, “He’s probably just happy he doesn’t have to chase my nephew around today.”

“Oh yeah,” Kurenai said, “I forgot he was on Konohamaru duty.”

“Thank you for that _very_ important information,” Hiruzen said, casting a sidelong glance at his son and his friends, still so much like their younger selves, whispered conversations through anything that didn’t exactly catch their eye. Asuma, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Guy all very much recognized that the emphasis was meant for them. They sat up straighter, ready to listen to what the Hokage had to say.

“Just as we did with the other villages on our recruiting missions, we’ll have the exam proctors explain each portion of the exam and its purpose. Afterward, we’ll call on you to submit your teams. Be wary, our proctors won’t go easy on your teams just because The Leaf Village is hosting this year. You should only submit your genin teams if you have full confidence in their abilities to face these challenges.”

With that, each of the exam proctors took a step forward. The first was Ibiki Morino, the head of Konoha’s Torture and Interrogation Force.

“I’m really surprised Ibiki is part of this, seems pretty intense just for a Chunnin Exam,” Kakashi whispered to Asuma.

“Well, if all the eligible Leaf teams enter, this is set to be the biggest Chunnin Exam in history. It makes sense that Ibiki would want to be in on the action,” Asuma said, having done the math earlier while Ebisu was speaking.

Kurenai elbowed Asuma in the side, not gently, “I do not want to get a death glare from the Hokage again.”

“Oh, come on,” Asuma gave her a mischievous smile, “He’s not that scary. Besides he likes you better than me.”

Kurenai rolled her eyes at him and turned back to the stage as Ibiki began to speak.

“The first portion of this year’s Chunnin Exam will be a written test, ten questions in total, nine already on the paper and one to be delivered orally,” Ibiki said, his voice deep and serious as always. “Only those ten questions will be nearly impossible to answer. The genin will have no choice but to cheat on the exam, and we’ll make it possible too, with a few plants with correct answers throughout the room. Also, throughout the room will be sentries, trying to identify any cheaters.”

At this, Ibiki nodded a group chunnin and jounin standing behind him, the other members of the Torture and Interrogation force.

“Once a participant is caught cheating five times, they will be dismissed and no longer allowed to participate in the exam. As will their other two teammates,” Ibiki said.

There was a muttering in the room them, a whispered urgency at the news. In the past exams, full teams had never been eliminated for the mistakes of a single member. This would certainly be different.

“Yes, we’re emphasizing teamwork this year, but that’s not all,” Ibiki said. “Once the ninjas have completed the first nine questions, we’ll present the tenth question orally. This question will be a choice. Either they can choose to give up, taking the rest of their team with them, or try to answer the tenth question. The tenth question will harder than any of the nine impossible questions before, and if they get it wrong, they will never be able to take the chunnin exams again, their teammates included.”

And here, Ibiki let out a subtle and rare smile, “Of course, this isn’t true. We just want them to believe the stakes are that high. Whatever ninjas choose to attempt the tenth question will automatically pass. The tenth question is the choice itself, and the only answer that matters is an unwillingness to give up, even when the stakes are high. Their answers to the first nine questions won’t matter, just their ability to cheat without getting caught. First, they have to be sneaky and then they have to be gutsy, valuable skills for all ninjas.”

“Wow,” Guy said, “Ibiki really knows how to design them.”

Kakashi thought of Naruto, of how simple-minded he was sometimes. Kakashi was sure this portion of the exam would be something he struggled with, “Yeah, but I’m sure he thinks it’s all good fun.”

“And after they’re done getting their brain fucked by Ibiki, they’ll have to deal with me,” a woman said, stepping up by Ibiki. Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, and Guy recognized her, of course, Anko Mitarashi, exactly the type of ninja who could say ‘brain-fucked’ in front of a crowd and the Hokage without giving a single care.

“I had no idea Anko was involved in this Chunnin Exam,” Asuma said, “That’s gonna be weird.”

“She’s only been talking about it for the last year,” Kurenai whispered, remembering the night she and Anko had celebrated her getting chosen as an exam proctor. Kurenai was just glad that she wouldn’t have to keep it a secret anymore.

“Right after the exams, those genin are going to be introduced to a classic – The Forest of Death,” Anko said with a mischievous grin on her face, “You know it and love it, full of beasties and traps. They’ll have three days to navigate the forest and make their way to the lookout tower in the middle. But that won’t be all.”

Anko pulled out two scrolls from the bag on her side. One scroll had the symbol for heaven on it, the other for earth.

“Each team will be given one of either of these scrolls before they enter the forest. The only way to pass this portion of the exam is to meet at the tower with one heaven scroll and one earth scroll. We’ll only be distributing enough scrolls so that, at maximum, only half the teams who enter the forest will be able to successfully pass.”

Anko gave the crowd a wicked smile, “That is, if they fight fair and don’t fall prey to any of the other delights that await them in the forest.”

“My students can definitely handle that,” Guy said, thinking he had been right to not submit them to the exams last year, they never would have been able to handle the second challenge then, but now, it would be easy.

“I’m sure they will, Guy,” Kakashi said, remembering the long talks they had last year, Guy’s mixed feelings about making his team wait to take the exam.

Hayate Gekko stepped forward beside Anko, “Immediately following the Forest of Death, we will have preliminary fights for the final rounds of fights. We encourage you to watch these fights, as the genin who have made it to this point should get used to being observed while they fight. This is where the team aspect falls away, as genin will now be fighting for individual promotion to the next round, rather than working as a team to move through the test. Matches will also be randomly selected, so it’s possible that teammates may have to face each other. Winning is what matters in these preliminary rounds, and although we will emphasize that they don’t need to kill their opponent to win, we cannot make any promises that all participants will honor this.”

“The winners of all these matches,” Genma Shiranui said, stepping up beside the other proctors, “will have public matches a month later. During this month, they should rest, but also train. Ninjas and non-ninjas from all the participating villages will be witness to these final fights. This is the final portion of the exam.”

“And remember,” Hiruzen said, standing in line beside the exam proctors, “Winning within these final fights is not necessarily important. While a genin who can make it to the final portion of this exam is certainly competent and one who wins their match even more so, winning is not how you become a chunnin. Myself, the other Kages, and leaders from participating villages will be observing the final fights and make that decision off what we see there. We’ll also be consulting the notes these proctors have taken throughout the exam process. A genin has to prove themselves capable at multiple levels to promoted to chunnin.”

“I also urge you to remember just how dangerous these exams are. There is no guarantee your students will live through these exams, there is no guarantee of success even if they do survive. Think deeply about what they are capable of; we’ll be asking for submissions in just a moment.”

“Well, it is quite an exam this year, and quite a set of proctors,” Asuma said, glancing at the stage. Besides Ibiki, all of the proctors were people he once considered close friends.

“Yeah, I’m sure it’s going to an interesting exam,” Kurenai added.

“Let’s just hope it’s not too interesting,” Kakashi said.

And, of course, there was the unsaid part between these three friends, that each of them was planning on submitting their rookie teams for the Chunnin Exams. This was uncommon, most team leaders took the same approach that Guy did, waiting a year or more to submit their teams. And so many teams took so many tries; there was no guarantee this would be both the first and last time they would submit their team. But each of them – Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai – believed that this chunnin exam would be different, that their rookie teams would succeed. It was a belief rooted more deeply in them than they could ever describe.

Of course, none of them knew what was pushing this belief, the forces at work to shape their confidence in such novice ninja. No one knew what was to come in the following weeks, as the exam began, what secrets would be revealed, what monsters would come out of hiding, what leaders they would lose. It was a complicated mess, a weaving full of tangles and jagged edges and hard stitches and so much more, the push and pull of the forces of the universe, telling these still, relatively young, Jounin teachers that their rookie students were ready for this.

As Ebisu went around the room, calling on team leaders to submit their teams, there was a resounding yes from each ninja. Some of these ninjas were submitting their teams for the first time, having held them back a year or even two. Some of ninjas were submitting these teams for the second, third, or even fourth times, hoping the added years of training would finally push their students to the common ninja standards. When Might Guy was called, he submitted his team with more gusto than the rest of them combined.

Finally, Ebisu looked at Kurenai, “I know the answer is probably no, but I have to ask all team leaders, even rookie team leaders. Kurenai, will you be submitting your team for this year’s Chunnin Exams?”

“Yes,” Kurenai said, loudly and clearly. There was a mummering in the room. Submitting your team as rookies, who had barely been out of the academy six months, was a sure way to get them all killed.

“Are you sure, they’re barely ninjas,” Ebisu said, stuttering.

“I said yes Ebisu,” Kurenai said, leveling him a heady gaze.

Ebisu gulped, “Okay, Asuma, I’m sure you have a more sensible answer.”

“I’ll be submitting my team too,” Asuma said with a look that matched Kurenai’s. The mumbling in the room grew a little.

“Okay,” Ebisu said, the shock clear on his face, “Kakashi?”

“The same goes for me. I’m submitting my team,” Kakashi said, not a hint of doubt in his voice.

The mummering in the room grew louder, a definitive buzz, and Ebisu mumbled about priorities and marked the three rookie teams down.

“Quiet,” Hiruzen called to the buzzing crowd. The silence fell immediately, “Asuma, Kurenai, Kakashi, are you sure about this? We’ve never before had a chunnin exam where all rookie teams participate. You know the risks of this exam; you know how important it is for Konoha to put on a strong front. Are you sure?

Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai looked at each other and then back up at the Hokage. Not even his cautious gaze could take away the confidence they each felt, the forces they felt compelled them to say…

“Yes, I’m sure,” Kurenai said.

“I am positive my team is ready,” Kakashi said.

“They’ll make the Leaf Village proud,” Asuma said.

Hiruzen was silent for a moment, looking at all of them, but could see no doubt in their faces, “Okay then, if you trust they are ready, then Konoha will be submitting all three rookie teams. Ebisu, how many teams did the Leaf Village submit?”

Ebisu ran his eyes over the paperwork, “72 teams, sir. It will be the largest Chunnin Exams, with 153 participants, that has ever been held…well, ever.”

“That’s excellent,” Hiruzen said, the eagerness to see the new generation of ninjas present in his voice, “Sentries will deliver the proper paperwork to your genin tonight, I suggest you hold a meeting to describe the purpose of the Chunnin Exams sometime soon. Though, remember, you cannot share exact details of what to expect at each portion, or your genin will be eliminated before the exams begin. Which just happens to be in exactly two weeks. You are all dismissed.”

As the crowd started to move toward the exits, Guy turned to his three friends, “You guys really believe your teams are ready?”

“Yeah, we do,” Asuma said, somehow knowing that they shared a collective sense of faith and confidence in what this exam could mean.

“Well, Iruka is gonna have a field day with this,” Guy said.

“What do you mean?” Kurenai asked.

“You haven’t heard?” Guy asked in surprise. 

They shook their heads at him.

“Your teams, the rookies you just submitted, they were all Iruka’s students at the academy. All nine of them passed the academy exams and then passed your exams, that combination has never happened before,” Guy explained, “And now, you’ve now submitted them all to the Chunnin exams so early too, it’s no wonder people around the village are calling them the Rookie Nine.”

“Huh, I had no idea,” Kurenai said, though she knew the reason. She cared too much about her students, was too involved with their lives, to listen to the gossip about them.

“The Rookie Nine, that’s quite the nickname,” Asuma said, remembering his old teams, the nicknames they had. He knew his team had specifically come from Iruka’s class but have never thought to ask Kurenai or Kakashi about their students’ previous teacher.

“And they’re really all Iruka’s students?” Kakashi asked. He knew his team were Iruka’s old students, had read it in their profiles. He knew, too, that Naruto and Iruka had some type of close friendship that Kakashi hadn’t really investigated yet. He remembered the point in his life when he had considered Iruka a close friend, how it had been so long since they had really caught up.

“Yeah, all of them,” Guy said, “Guess he really found his place, teaching at the academy.”

“I haven’t seen Iruka in a while,” Kakashi admitted, thinking about how much he wanted to see him, how something was pushing him to do it in the same way it had pushed him to submit his students.

“Yeah,” Kurenai said, the same sort of press and nostalgia pushing into her as she looked around, “I haven’t seen a lot of these people in a while.”

“I have a feeling we’re all thinking the same thing,” Asuma said, glancing between Kurenai and Kakashi, a push happening in him too.

“Yeah, we are,” Kakashi said, the outlines of a smile under a mask. Asuma and Kurenai nodded and moved through the crowd, stopping to chat to people here and there.

Kakashi put his hand on Guy’s shoulders, “I know you have a challenge for us, but I have one first, let’s see how many old friends we can round up.” 

* * *

Iruka was pacing around his apartment. Right now, Chunnin and Jounin from all over the village would be meeting with the Hokage to decide which genin teams would be competing in the upcoming Chunnin Exams. For some reason, Iruka had been nervous about this all day.

He really had no right to be, knew that there was no way Kurenai, Asuma, or Kakashi would submit any of the Rookie Nine, the nickname other villagers had been giving Iruka’s graduating class. Iruka had a new class now, had been working with them for a few weeks. They were good, but nothing too special. There was something electric about his first class of students, something he wasn’t finding with his second set. He had been keeping up with them since they graduated, asking around about them. Of course, he got firsthand accounts from Naruto about Team 7, but he had ways of keeping up with the others.

None of them were ready for something like the Chunnin Exams, he knew that. But he couldn’t help but feel the aching anxiety in his stomach. He was nervous about his students, nervous about what had happened last month, that feeling so distinct, that sense that she was out there. Too much was plaguing his mind right now.

And then there was a bounding of knocks on his door, scaring Iruka out of his pacing. He looked at the time, too late for any of the usual visitors. The knocking continued.

Iruka pulled open his door and was surprised by what he saw, a whole crowd of old friends waiting on his doorstep. Kakashi and Guy were at the front, each of them carrying boxes of beer, sake, and other drinks. Then Kurenai and Asuma. Anko and Ebisu. Izumo and Kotetsu. Hayate and Gemna. And others still, a few more people he’d consider acquaintances more than friends. All the faces instantly took him back, to the last time they were all together, outside of missions and exams, that was. It had been so long, the night of Kakashi’s 21st birthday, roughly five years ago. The anxiety in Iruka’s stomach flitted away, replaced by the nostalgia and joy of seeing all his old friends at his doorstep. Of course, there was a face missing in the crowd, more obvious to Iruka than anyone else.

“Well, are you gonna invite us in?” Kakashi said.

“Sure,” Iruka said, a grin spreading wide across his face.

Everyone sprawled in, greeting Iruka as they passed him. Iruka regularly worked with Izumo, Kotetsu, Hayate, and Gemna, who all had alternative positions at the academy when they weren’t doing government work. But he hadn’t seen Anko or Ebisu in a few years. He had just seen Guy a few weeks ago, when they had lunch together. Iruka had thought about telling him then, about what had happened last month, but he had hesitated, wasn’t sure Guy would understand. And Kurenai, Asuma, and Kakashi, he hadn’t seen in almost half a year, when Kurenai passed her Jounin Exam. Kakashi, Iruka thought, he would be the one to tell. He would be the only one who missed her like Iruka missed her.

“What are you guys doing here?” Iruka asked.

“Can’t we surprise an old friend with a party for no reason?” Asuma said, putting his hand on Iruka’s shoulder.

“Yeah, we thought it’d shake up what was probably a very boring evening,” Kakashi said, putting his hand on Iruka’s other shoulder. Asuma and Kakashi shook Iruka then, messing with him and laughing.

“Yeah, yeah,” Iruka said, pushing their hands away and chuckling.

“Iruka!” Anko called from the far side of his kitchen. She was rustling through his cabinets, pulling out packages of instant ramen, “I’m gonna fix this ramen, we’re all starved!’

“Yeah, ramen!” Izumo and Kotetsu said in unison. Hayate and Gemna rolled their eyes at them.

“Guy, you better start passing out those drinks, if we’re going to be eating what Anko cooks, we’re going to need something to mute the senses.” Kurenai said, grabbing a beer for herself.

Guy did as ordered. Anko started heating up water for ramen, Iruka keeping an eye out to make sure she wasn’t burning his kitchen down. At first, everyone was a little awkward, just small talk and catching up, here and there. But as they drank more, the alcohol pushing into their systems, and dug into bowls of Anko’s version of ramen, it got easier, they fell into an old conversations and old habits, everything a reflection of all the times they used to hang out in their younger years, when these parties were a frequent, something they did most weekends. Iruka, Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, and Guy made up the core group, drinking and joking and sharing old stories in the center of the room, grabbing attention of everyone else from time to time. Izumo and Kotetsu were with each other, as always, trying to one up each other in drinking games of their own inventions. Hayate and Gemna were having one of their usual conversations; the drunker they got the more they waxed deeply and poetically about life and mortality and whatever else came into their minds. Anko was all over the place, moving between different groups and claiming even more of the food in Iruka’s pantry as party snacks. Ebisu stayed on the edges of the room, silently drinking in the corners. The others moved in and out of conversations, buzzing through the party as the night went on.

To look at them, you wouldn’t think that this was the first time an old group of friends was reconnecting in a long time. The energy was relaxed and fun, like these friends had ample practice in being around each other, without the pauses that life had thrown at them lately. And if you looked close enough, you could see their younger selves and stories, existing right alongside them, as the night went on.

Like with Anko plopped herself into Kakashi’s lap and ran her hand over his cheek, “Kakashi, babe, you gotta stop trying to cover that face up all the time.”

Of course, Kakashi’s mask was off – he needed to drink and eat. All his friends had already seen him without a mask before, his handsome face was nothing new or special to them.

Kakashi rolled his eyes at Anko, “Yeah, I’m sure you’d like that.”

“Yeah, and so would every other woman in the Leaf Village,” Anko said with a grin. Kakashi smirked back at her.

Kurenai rolled her eyes then, “You know, for people who are no longer having sex, you guys still flirt a lot.”

“Well, it’s not my fault Kakashi decided to become a prude a few years ago,” Anko said and lifted herself out of Kakashi’s lap. She winked at him and then wondered off to butt into Hayate and Gemna’s conversation.

Or later, when Guy asked Asuma if he had popped the question to Kurenai yet.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Asuma said confidently, though the redness on his face betrayed him.

“Don’t make assumptions about things you don’t know,” Kurenai said, hoping it would make Asuma less embarrassed.

“Oh god,” Imuno said, rolling his eyes, “You guys still aren’t doing that thing where you’re pretending that you’re not together.”

“Yeah, like we haven’t all seen you making out,” Kotetsu added, sticking his tongue out in mock disgust.

“I’m pretty sure you guys have made out in that closet,” Iruka said, gesturing toward the door on the other side of the room.

“They made out in my closet once too,” Kakashi said, joining the teasing.

“And mine!” Guy jutted in.

“You guys really have a closet kink, don’t you?” Anko asked.

Asuma and Kurenai buried their heads in their hands, laughing and red, embarrassed by the behavior of their younger years.

Or even later, when Asuma called Ebisu over, “So how does it feel to be a glorified babysitter for my nephew?”

Ebisu huffed, “I find it an honor to protect and train Lord Hokage’s grandson, thank you very much.”

“Ebisu, is there any duty the village could give you that you wouldn’t find honorable?” Kakashi joked.

“Oh, I know some dishonorable things he’s enjoyed just as much,” Anko said, winking at Ebisu. Ebisu’s face turned a deep shade of red, Kakashi, Guy, and Asuma looked between Anko and Ebisu in surprise and confusion. Anko and Kurenai looked at each other and broke out into a fit of giggles.

There was more too, like when Guy and Kakashi decided to have a push up contest but both were too tipsy, laughing too much to really concentrate on it. Like when Imuno and Kotetsu started picking on Hayate and Gemna’s conversations, asking them why they were so serious. Like when everyone started humming the same old song. Of course, a fair bit of this was alcohol induced. These were serious ninjas with serious jobs and they hardly ever let loose anymore, hardly ever felt themselves feel young anymore. This was a rare and fun and human gift that they gave themselves on that night.

Because they had been young once, younger than they even were now, teenagers learning about life and love and sadness and coming together and spreading apart. This reunion was nothing compared to the ventures they had once had, but we’ll get to those stories eventually, in the _Between_ , where the missing piece of this night still lives.

There was another conversation that happened between old friends. The conversation about the chunnin exam. A few hours after his friends showed up, Iruka finally remembered his anxiety from earlier, remembered his innate worry about the Rookie Nine.

“I know who here is working as a proctor,” Iruka said, glancing at the room, “But only Guy’s team is entering, right?”

“Yes, they are, and my students are going to do great!” Guy yelled, his cheeks red from how much he had drunk over the last few hours.

Iruka smiled at him, knew how much he liked to brag about his students, especially that Rock Lee, who Guy had essentially made a miniature version of himself. Iruka had passed him a few times in the village, each time thinking that it was a younger version of Guy, somehow transported to the present.

“But he’s not the only one with teams,” Anko said. She looked at Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma, “These ballsy motherfuckers all submitted their rookie teams.”

“What, my students?” Iruka asked desperately, the haze of alcohol making his emotions more apparent.

“Well, they’re technically our students now,” Kakashi said.

“But they’re not ready, they just graduated,” Iruka responded, the anxiety he felt earlier returning in full force.

“Six months ago, Iruka,” Kurenai added, “And they’ve done a lot since then.”

“But six months of D-rank missions and one C-rank missions,” Iruka sputtered, “That’s not enough to face anything like the Chunnin Exams.”

“We know you keep up with them,” Asuma offered, “You know that all of those C-rank missions ended up being a lot more than that, and they all handled themselves well.”

Asuma was right, of course. He had heard about Team 7’s supposed C-rank mission firsthand from Naruto, and about Team 8 and Team 10’s missions by asking around.

Kakashi could see that Iruka was worried, knew how deeply he cared about those students, even though they had all graduated the academy. Maybe he could bring him around to the idea of it, but he needed Iruka to see what kind of faith they had in their teams, the type of faith he should have too.

“Iruka, tell us about them,” Kakashi said.

“What?”

“Describe the rookies to us, I want to hear why you think they’re not ready.”

Iruka rolled his eyes but decided he would go along with Kakashi’s idea anyway.

“Well I guess I could start off with the way they’re set up as teams, like Team 8. Hinata is strong, unexpectantly so, but she’s also shy and hesitant, the other ninjas in the exam may take advantage of that. Kiba and Akamaru work well together, but he’s too brash, he doesn’t think through things. And Shino is the opposite, he thinks too hard, is too by-the-books; he’d probably leave a teammate behind just so he could fulfill a mission.”

“A lot has changed for Hinata lately,” Kurenai said, “She stood up to her father, and she’s getting stronger and more confident every day. She doesn’t hesitate anymore. And Shino cares about his teammates a lot, but you have to pay attention to it, it’s right there under the surface. In fact, we have monthly team outings now, just to bond – they were Shino’s ideas. And Kiba, his two teammates have really reigned him in. He’s still kind of brash, but honestly, he might be the most level-headed and proactive of the three, he’s become something of a leader.”

Iruka felt a small wave of jealously, sad that he didn’t to get see these changes in them up close. But at the same time, Iruka felt a sense of pride, that his students were moving and growing and becoming something beyond him. Some of the anxiety fell away, replaced by a sudden force of confidence. If what Kurenai said was true, then Team 8 would be okay.

“But what about Team 10, Asuma,” Iruka said, turning to him.

“They were paired together because of the Ino-Shika-Cho legacy, but I had my doubts they would work together as a team. Shikamaru and Chouji are good friends, but their temperaments are so different, I’m not sure if would work well for teamwork. Chouji is gentle; he doesn’t like conflict. Which is fine, but he defers to Shikamaru too much. Shikamaru is too lazy; he doesn’t take enough action or initiative. He came across as an average student in every exam we had even though I know he was a lot smarter than that. And Ino is so stubborn, strong and impressive, but often too self-involved. I don’t know how it could work between them.”

“The thing about the Ino-Shika-Cho legacy that I’m realizing,” Asuma explained, “is that it’s not just talk. There is a sort of natural rhythm in this team, they seem to understand each other implicitly, despite the clashing personalities. Chouji is still just as gentle but has become such a fierce protector of his teammates. He’s not scared to call Shikamaru when he’s being too lazy. And Shikamaru is still lazy, on the average day, but when things get hard his mind works some kind of wonders. He’s turning into a great strategist, a great leader. And Ino’s stubbornness is really her power, she drives her teammates in a pretty outstanding way.”

Just like with the other team, Iruka felt combinations of jealousy and pride, a sense of confidence rushing into him, a force that felt familiar, felt like the same energy he recognized, from the graduation exam six months ago.

“And your commentary on Team 7?” Kakashi prompted.

“At this point, I’m sure you already know what I’m going to say and I’m sure you already have a retort. Sasuke is strong but too into his own prerogatives. Sakura is smart but easily distracted. And Naruto… I just don’t want to see him fail. That kid has already had enough hardship.”

Kakashi smiled at this, “Yeah, he’s your favorite, even though you’d never admit that aloud. Why is that?”

Iruka felt a stir of affection in him. He remembered all his former students fondly, but Naruto was different, Naruto was his family, “He reminds me of me, when I was younger.”

“And do you remember how you were at that age?” Kakashi asked.

“Yeah, full of life and spite, always changing, and thinking something new every day,” Iruka said, a mixed feeling of nostalgia washing through him, “I was different each day.”

“Then you have to trust that your students are different now too,” Kurenai said, “You have to trust us when we say they’ve grown.”

“No one on Team 7 is the same kid they were six months ago,” Kakashi said, “You spend enough time with Naruto to have proof of that.”

And Kakashi was right, of course. In their six months of friendship, Iruka had watched Naruto grow every day. He still had all his best parts – his energy, his faith that he would one day be Hokage, his want to help others, his need to be respected. But there were new things too. Naruto was calming down a bit, he was a little more serious, he saw a little bit deeper, like things that he could once only see the surface of were becoming a lot clearer to him. It was incredible to watch and Iruka felt lucky, really, that he got to see that growth so closely, knew he wanted to make efforts to see that in all his other former students. The last of his anxiety fell away, replaced by a stirring sense that everyone would be okay, that the Rookie Nine could face whatever challenges the Chunnin Exam gave them.

He didn’t know, of course, but it was the same sort of confidence that lived in Asuma, Kurenai, and Kakashi. The same sort of force that had pushed them to submit their teams to the chunnin exam, the same forces that were now converging around the Leaf Village, setting everything up for the next storied threads.

“If what you guys are saying is true,” Iruka said, the pride in his voice coming through, “Then they’re ready.”

“Glad you think so,” Asuma said, “Now can we stop with the serious conversations and have some fun?”

“Sure,” Iruka said, with a smile.

And the old friends did have fun, falling back into the same raucous energy as before. But Iruka knew he still had one more difficult conversation to have before the night was over.

* * *

The closer it got to midnight, the more people peeled off, each of them complaining that they weren’t young anymore, that they couldn’t drink and talk and goof off all night, the way they had done just a few years ago. It was ridiculous really, none of them older than 26, but being a ninja did that; they would always feel older than they actually were.

Everyone felt a buzzing energy in the air, excited about the chunnin exam, remembering their own exams, curious about the ninja who would arrive, even more curious about this set of rookies, the way Iruka, Asuma, and Kurenai seemed to believe in them so much. Would that faith be rewarded?

Finally, it was just Kakashi and Iruka, each of them gathering up the trash that was left behind, an old habit and old memories suddenly slipping them back into their usual places, sobering up as they did so.

“Sorry for just showing up unannounced,” Kakashi said and they cleaned the last of it.

Iruka rolled his eyes, “No, you’re not. It’s exactly what she would do.”

And there it was, the unsaid part, hinted at so many times during the night but never said out loud. The reason why this group of friends, whose everyday lives used to cross over so much they didn’t know where one day began and another ended, their stories tangling together in ways they delighted and loved, hardly saw each other anymore. They still kept up, hung out in twos and threes from time to time, but it had been years since they had come together like this. It wasn’t just her, of course, it was also life. They moved up in the ninja ranks, they got new jobs, they got busier. Most of them pretended this is what naturally happened, when you got older, when you grew up, that friends who had once filled your life to the brim, would just become the occasional footnote in your story. Kakashi and Iruka pretended this most of all.

“Yeah, I guess she would,” Kakashi said after a long moment, a twinge in his chest. He knew just how much Iruka wanted to say the unsaid thing, knew just how much he himself didn’t want the unsaid part said.

Iruka looked at Kakashi, knew what he was thinking. They had been close friends once, and he knew just how much Kakashi liked to mask his pain (both in a figurative and literal sense). Maybe it was the alcohol in his system, maybe it was the thrill he had felt tonight, of almost everyone being back under one roof, of the inside jokes that had stirred up from dust, the conversations sliding so smoothly along, that his life had felt a little fuller than it had in years, but Iruka didn’t give a damn what Kakashi wanted.

“You know, when the academy is out of session, I sometimes go on some solo missions, just to make some extra money” Iruka said, pulling open the door to his balcony. Kakashi followed him out. They both leaned against the railing and looked out at the midnight lights and stars surrounding the village.

“Does the academy not pay well enough?” Kakashi asked, surprised by how Iruka had changed the subject.

Iruka chuckled, “Yeah, it’s a good job but sometimes I want to feel more like a ninja than I do a teacher. It’s refreshing.”

When Kakashi didn’t respond, Iruka went on, “Last month, I was in the Land of Keys on a delivery mission. Everything went fine, but just as I was leaving, heading toward the edges of town, I got hit with a sudden wave of grogginess, a headache, ringing in my ears, nausea, and dizziness, all that shit. One second I was walking and the next I was overcome.”

Kakashi felt the sense of recognition, the feeling his was describing, “And…?”

“You remember when she used rewind, that’s what she called it, when she would…”

“- undo the strands,” Kakashi finished for him, knowing what he meant exactly.

Iruka smiled then, could see Kakashi was going to play along, “Yeah, if it was your time, if it was your strands, you felt like you had the worst hangover ever, worse than anything you’d ever experience.”

Kakashi nodded. He knew the feeling well, so did Iruka. She had undone so many things, had flitted back and forth between the strands of time like it was nothing. Kakashi knew there were rules of course, the scroll she always kept on her person, but he had tried to forget them.

“I think she was there Kakashi,” Iruka said, pushing ahead, “I think something happened between us, no more than a day, given how long the feeling lasted, but it was the exact same feeling Kakashi. And she undid it, she rewound whatever happened.”

Iruka was convinced, could feel his heart racing as he said it, could feel the excitement pulsing through him. He hadn’t felt like that, like he had been undone, in five years. It wasn’t something you would forget, as distinctive as it was. He continued, “I spent the rest of the day searching the place, the town I was in. Even ventured outside it for a while, but I couldn’t find anything. Didn’t see her. But I know it was her. She was there.”

Kakashi considered for a long moment and then let out a sigh, he knew this next part wouldn’t be easy, “Iruka, you have to move on.”

Iruka felt anger immediately. Here he was telling Kakashi he had definitive proof that something had happened, that he somehow stumbled upon her, that whatever had happened, she undid it, “You don’t just move on from a person you cared about.”

Kakashi let out a bitter, short laugh, “Of course we do, we’re ninjas, we do it all the time.”

“But Kira isn’t dead,” Iruka said, saying her name for the first time, the unsaid said.

They let the name hang in the air for a moment, fill their heads with memories of the girl with auburn hair and a mischievous grin, the girl who had made so much possible in their lives, the girl who ran away from them, nearly five years ago now.

“I know,” Kakashi said, resigned, “But if you did meet her, if she rewound whatever happened, that means she didn’t want that to happen. If you somehow saw Kira again, it doesn’t matter if she undid it.”

Iruka let out a sigh of frustration, he didn’t understand why Kakashi didn’t care more. Kakashi, more than anyone, should get where he was coming from. Should know why how Iruka had so much hope. And, Iruka thought, our friendship should be strong enough for him to let me keep that hope. “I don’t accept that.”

Kakashi didn’t see it way Iruka did. He thought he was a better friend, really, for trying to squash Iruka’s hope. Kakashi had lost his own hope so long ago, “And you didn’t accept it when she left either, spent weeks searching for her, but you eventually gave that up too.”

Iruka didn’t want to think about that, those weeks alone, searching and hurt and not understanding why she had gone. It took everything in him to stop, everything in him to give up. But if Kakashi was resigned, it wasn’t worth picking a fight with him now.

“Really,” Iruka said, rolling his eyes at Kakashi, a dull tone in his voice, “It’s no use talking to you. Maybe I’ll mention it to Guy instead, see what he says.”

“Don’t do that,” Kakashi said, annoyed now, “Don’t rope everyone else in just because you can’t get over her. We’ve all grown up since then, we’ve all moved on. It’s time for you to do that too.”

Iruka was annoyed now too, all good feelings from that night fizzled out, the whole night now tainted by Kakashi’s stubbornness, by his unwillingness to see that they could get Kira back, if they just tried.

“Whatever,” Iruka said, leaving the balcony and heading to the door of his apartment. He opened it, glared at Kakashi, “I’ll see you at the final fights of the exam.”

Kakashi let out a sigh; it was time to leave. He knew Iruka was gentler than the act he put on; knew they wouldn’t have to wait that long before they spoke again. But for now, Iruka needed time. Kakashi walked out the door. 

* * *

The girl that Kakashi and Iruka fought over matters, but we’ll get to her next. She is not the story of that night. The story of that night is the story of silent sentries moving through the village, dropping off small scrolls in all the assigned places. Ready, waiting messages that had the potential to change a ninja’s life.

The next day, each of the Rookie Nine found a scroll outside their door. An invitation, to an exam they were familiar with, an exam that none of them imagined themselves being ready for. But the moment they read the words, the moment they realized what this could mean for them, they felt ready. It was time for the Chunnin Exams.


	11. (Corners & Between) A Girl Named Kira

**This chapter is the first (of what will be many) that completely contains OCs. I know that these chapters may be a little harder to read through because they're not full of your favorite characters, but there are pieces of them here and there. And the canon characters and OC characters's stories will slowly, but surely, start to weave back together. Chapters with mostly OCs will take place in the _Corners_ , which exists in the same timeline as _Here_ , for the most part. **

**This chapter also introduces one of my biggest changes to my Naruto rewrite - the concept of time travel. It's explained roughly here, but it will become more and more detailed over time, as it it becomes a more integral part of the plots. Expect a lot of this later on.**

**Otherwise, I really hope you enjoy this OC and the concepts in this chapter. Next week we'll return to our main crew, everyone meeting again and meeting new characters that we know and love for the Chunnin Exams.**

**And as a final note, I really appreciate the last few comments/reviews I got. Thank you so much for liking this story. Would love to see more and hear more thoughts.**

**Miho**

* * *

_Corners_

Far from where some old friends reunited and argued, buried deeply in the Land of Keys was what looked like an ordinary trading town, where ninjas and non-ninjas alike passed through. It’s name was Hoseki. It wasn’t too big, nor was it too small. A main street bigger than most, filled with food vendors and shops and other stores. On the usual days, it saw a lot of foot traffic, but the real event happened on the weekends, when the streets closed down and vendors from all over the Land of Keys and the other surrounding lands came to trade in food, wares, tools, and anything you can imagine. But if you wanted to trade in secrets, you didn’t go to the weekend markets, you went to The Scrapyard.

Hidden on the edges of town, a place to let go of your troubles, whatever they were.

Kira stood behind it now, a smile on her face; tonight would be a good night.

“Hey,” someone called behind her.

Kira turned and looked at the young man approaching. He was tall and a bit lanky, still looking underfed despite Kira shoving tons of food his way throughout the past week. But his longish-brown hair was clean and combed out of his face, he was wearing the new clothes she bought him, and his dark green eyes were bright and expectant. He looked nothing like the broken, angry kid she met a few months ago. She was happy he had finally made it here, had been so anxious when she had to leave him behind.

“I’m glad you found it okay,” Kira said, gesturing to the building in front of them. It was dusk still, so The Scrapyard wasn’t too busy, not yet, only a subtle buzz of the noise inside could be heard out here. And besides, this was the back entry, but she would make sure he got a view of the front before the night was over.

He smiled, “Yeah it wasn’t too hard, it looks like half the town was heading here, and then some.”

Kira shrugged her shoulder, “Market weekends.”

“But none of them seemed to know about the trail that led back here.”

“And none of them will,” Kira said, “That’s a members-only secret.”

As Kira spoke, laughter spilled around the corner and two young women appeared, hands wrapped together, eyes alight on each other.

“Ah, just in time,” Kira said to them as they walked up. They looked the guy up and down, with eyes that were curious, rather than judgmental.

“Sho,” Kira said, looking at the boy and then back at the two girls, “I’d like to introduce you to Kin and Eri.”

One of the girls, Kin, with the long silvery hair and violet eyes, gave him a bright smile, “Hi Sho, you’re cute.”

Sho flushed and stuttered, his tone a bit apprehensive, “Um…hi.”

Eri, the other girl, with freckled cheeks, a scarred face, and a long, dark ponytail, laughed at that, “God, you’re such a flirt.”

Kin turned to Eri, “Yeah and it’s exactly what you like about me.”

Kin’s voice was full of mirth, an obvious air of flirtation in the tone directed at Eri too.

“And as you can see,” Kira said, “They’re absolutely insufferable.”

“We’re not,” they both said in unison and laughed again.

Kira rolled her eyes at them, though the truth was that she found their constant teasing and flirting endearing. They were surrounded by a giddy energy, a blossoming of something fresh and new and exploratory for each of them, young love in its truest form. They made each other happy, and it was great to see that grow over the last few months.

“Anyway,” Kira said, “Because you’re seventeen, Sho, you’re not technically allowed into The Scrapyard yet, at least not until you’re eighteen. But Rei, Tomo, and I decided since we’re going to be making you come to rehearsals, trainings, and meetings, that we might as well give you a behind the scenes look at how this place works.”

“Kin and Eri are closest to you in age, so I thought they’d made the best hosts,” she added, gesturing to the two girls.

Kin opened her mouth, “Kira says that like she’s ancient, but she’s really not much older than us.”

“Kin,” Kira said pointedly, “Just turned twenty, and Eri is nineteen.”

“And Kira is only twenty-four,” Eri said, “Since we’re all sharing ages.”

“Hey! You only know how old I am because you tricked me, don’t spread it around,” Kira reacted, but with affection in her voice.

“I’m also sticking you with them because they’re our most recent members; they just got here three months ago, so I thought you’d all get along, so fresh and stuff.”

“Oh,” Sho said, surprised by just how comfortable they were around each other for having known each other such little time.

“They’ll take good care of you kid,” Kira said, giving Sho a smile, “Don’t worry.”

Eri and Kin took that as a signal and asked Sho some questions, just minimal stuff. They were smart enough, had already learned enough in the last three months, to know that you don’t start with the heavy stuff first. But as Kira watched them talking, she saw the way the three conversed so smoothly, the recognition of something more there. With Eri is the most obvious, the raised, white scars on her face telling the story before she even got the chance too. And Kira knew that if Sho paid attention, he could see Kin’s scars too, small round burn marks starting at the back of her ear, then threading down her neck and back. The bruises and nicks she showed up with had disappeared, but those burns wouldn’t. Sho was like Kira herself, the scars beneath the surface, but Kira could see already that Kin and Eri were recognizing that in him.

After a few moments of questioning, they pulled him toward The Scrapyard, three stories tall. The buzz from inside was getting louder now, and when Kin and Eri pulled Sho inside there was the sudden flash of the noise and lights and revelry as the door opened and then silence as the door closed.

Kira turned around, ready to head back to her apartment and savor her night off. But then the door opened again, the familiar figures of Rei and Tomo headed out and toward her. Rei and Tomo both looked built of the same stuff – dark, smooth skin, tall and broad-shouldered, dark grey eyes, and the same tight, curled midnight black hair. You would think they were siblings, twins even, but Kira knew her closest friends, knew how their pasts had actually brought such look a-likes together.

“What’s up?” Kira asked as they got closer.

Rei spoke first, “You know how we’re leaving for the Land of Hot Water next week, for an old friend’s wedding?”

“Yeah,” Kira nodded, “At which point I’ll be flying solo for two weeks.”

“Well, what if we told you needed to leave a week early, tonight?”

Kira recognized the tone in Rei’s voice, the seriousness in it that wasn’t normally present.

“Why?”

“We got a call, an anonymous one,” Tomo said, “about a girl in the Sand Village, so we’re taking a detour through the Land of Wind on our way to Genn’s place.”

“Oh,” Kira said, her heart dropping, knowing what this meant.

“And it’s more complicated than that too,” Rei added, her voice still deadly serious.

“The girl is the Kazekage’s daughter, and well…the source said it was the Kage himself,” Tomo added, his tone dry, their habit of finishing each other’s sentences present even in the bleakest of dialogues.

“Fuck,” Kira said, rage boiling through her, “That’s fucked.”

“Yeah, which is why we plan to follow up despite the obvious danger.”

Kira hadn’t even thought about that, about them getting info about someone so high up in the ninja world, “Oh man, are you sure it’s worth it? The daughter of a ninja of that ranking, she wouldn’t exactly fit the vibe.”

Rei’s grey eyes turned steely, a hard-old anger that Kira recognized, “It’s always worth it.”

“We know we probably won’t have much success,” Tomo said, “But we just want to wander around for a few days, see if we can find her, see if we can talk to her and let her know what options she has.”

They were right, of course, and Kira felt guilty even suggesting they not seek out this girl just because she was connected so highly in the ninja world. But her friends knew her well enough to know her concern came out of worry for them, not lack of concern for the girl.

“You know, I could get you guys there in a second, if you wanted that,” Kira offered, knowing she would feel better if they at least had safe passage.

Tomo smiled, “You know how we feel about that.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kira said, rolling her eyes, “It freaks you out, you prefer traveling light, it’s too tempting…I’ve heard it all before.”

“But you also know it’s why you’re our best recruiter,” Rei said, “I think it’s fair that we put in our own efforts from time to time.”

“Well, just be safe, okay?”

“We will,” Rei assured her with a solid smile.

“And hey, you’re going to be okay, taking charge by yourself?” Tomo asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’ve just been a little bit off is all,” Rei said gently, “Since last month.”

“When you showed up smelling like sex and sweat and sadness and wouldn’t explain why,” Tomo added, sass in his voice, “And then moped around for days.”

Kira let out a sigh, “I promise, I’m okay. It’s complicated. I’ll explain it after you get back.”

Because right now, Kira thought, it is still too hard to think about. That look on Iruka’s face, right before she undid the strands. He knew exactly what she was doing, and it had killed her to do it. But it had been for the best.

“We’ll hold you to that,” Rei said, and threw her arms around Kira in a farewell hug. Tomo joined in, wrapping his arms around both, lifting them into the air for a moment, and they all released, laughing and happy, a perfect goodbye.

She watched her friends go and thought about that last moment, again, right before she sent Iruka on his way, time undone, how it would have meant leaving this life if she hadn’t rewound their day together. This life of friends who had become family and the hard, human healing and joy of everyone they had recruited. Kira wasn’t ready to leave this life yet, to go back to the old life she had in the Leaf Village.

But as she walked into The Scrapyard, she wasn’t thinking about her time in the Leaf Village or even the time before that. She was thinking far into the folds of _Between_ , the first life that Kira ever knew.

* * *

_Between_

Kira remembered her first life in pieces, in stories through late nights, the lessons that were cut too short. The hearty, boisterous laughter spilling from her grandma’s lips, the way her wrinkled hands could work magic with the weaving, moving so quickly, the strands of reality rearranged. The jokes she made, the way she would pull Kira up when she was sad, moving her in bounding, shadowed arches around the campfire, telling her there was no sadness a fit of dancing couldn’t cure.

Kira was only five years old when her grandma first told her the first story, gave her the first piece of self, said she was old enough to understand.

“For ages, humans have named and worshipped gods and power and each other, never understanding the true nature of reality,” Mari said, her wrinkled face crackling in the dancing shadows of the fire.

Kira yawned, young and tired, and confused by why her grandma was telling her this now. Then again, Mari always said the best stories happen at half past midnight.

“The truth is kid, is that our reality is ruled by forces much larger than we could ever imagine, though we do have names for them – Life, Death, Space, Time, Fate, and Chance. Some think they’re siblings, born as the universe unfolded. Others think they came into being as the universe required them. It doesn’t really matter though, no one remembers them anymore.”

“How come no one remembers?” Kira asked, her voice small.

Mari shrugged her shoulders, “Humans don’t really have the capacity to imagine things much larger than ourselves. We’d rather conjure nice, suitable gods and leaders to follow instead. It doesn’t matter if anyone else remembers because we remember.”

“You see, each force has its own pull on reality, its own way of manipulating what was, is, and is to be. Their pull comes from the tight strands they use in weaving together the fabric of everything we know. Life is bright white, its strands the weakest and most easily undone. Death is black, a little stronger than Life, but often so closely woven alongside Fate’s powerful red strands that it rarely can be untangled. Space is a bright blue; its strands are flexible and durable. You can’t really undo them, but it’s easy to bend, shape, and manipulate them however you please. Chance is a vivid, startling orange, sporadic enough that his patterns easily unravel. Fate is the strongest, as I’ve already said, her strands impossible to break. And Time, a brilliant purple, interlaced with every other strand of reality. This is where were come in; Time is our maker and our reason.”

“That’s a lot of colors Grandma,” Kira said, confused by all the information that had been thrown her way.

“I know kid,” Mari said, a sweet smile on her face, “You’ll get to all of those details when you’re older, but there’s more still, so perk up.”

Kira sat up straighter and nodded at Mari to go on.

“A long time ago, something happened. No one knows what caused it, but a new strand was born. It wasn’t exactly a new force, because it wasn’t sentient in the way the others were. But they also somehow recognized it immediately. They called it Chakra. One day the fabric of reality was clearly defined, and the next, golden threads of chakra were pushing through all the weavings.”

“After a while, Time grew curious about this strand, knew the others were looking for a solution, for a way to fix this. Time played with the mysterious strands, weaving itself and this new thing together tighter than reality had formally allowed. And then, somewhere out in the world, a newly born baby girl cried. And Time felt it, the wail and burst of her cry, the power flowing through her so like his own. She would forever be part of Time, and he would forever be part of her.”

“I don’t get it,” Kira said, her small brows scrunching together in confusion.

“When Time messed with the strands of chakra, when he wove himself tighter to it than any other strands ever had before, it made something new – a girl with the power to manipulate time.”

“Like you?” Kira asked, suddenly getting the point of the story.

“Yes,” Mari smiled, “And like you, one day too.”

Kira returned her grandma’s smile sleepily but could tell the Mari wanted to say more.

“Time was thrilled by his creation, suggested to the others that they should try their own hands in making something new. But they resisted the idea, thought it was too much power, something no one human should have. But Time wouldn’t yield, refused to destroy his creation. They reached a compromise; the girl, and all the generations that would follow her, would be allowed to exist only if her power was limited. Each force had its own turn.”

“Life and Space decided that the girl’s scope of time should only last for her lifetime. She wouldn’t be able to weave before her birth or beyond her death. Death decided that she needed a blind spot, her own death hidden and impossible to see. Chance decided that only girls would have the capacity to change time, the unpredictability of birth a specialty of his. And Fate doubled down on the strength of her strands, knew it would be impossible for the girl to manipulate or undo the reality that Fate set forth. And each of them grabbed what Time had created, they made it so.”

“Which is why we can’t do everything. It’s important to remember. There are rules for a reason. They keep us and the fabric of reality safe.”

“So, because I’m a girl I can weave time, and because Dad was a boy, he couldn’t” Kira asked, not grasping the other limiters as much as that one.

“Yes, that’s right,” Mari said, and as she did, she waved her hand through the air in a swift motion, as if she was zipping through something.

“Do you see anything?” Mari asked.

Kira shook her head.

“I see every strand of reality, every brightly colored strand of the forces of the universe, woven here, ready for my nimble fingers to move and change. I could bring us to wherever we wanted, within my past and present. But I think, for now, a snack will do.”

Mari picked up one of the onigiri they had made earlier. She tossed it into the air, in the same spot she had moved her hand through, and it disappeared, leaving behind a faint amber glow. Mari let out a soft chuckle.

Kira tried to listen and watch, but she had seen this before and her eyes felt heavy, her head leaned to the side, nodding off.

“Kira,” Mari said gently.

Kira woke, shook her head, “Sorry Mari, I’m listening.”

“Go to sleep kid,” Mari told her, “This won’t be the first or last time you hear this story.”

With each passing year, Kira would understand it more and more, reciting the words before they even left her grandmother’s lips. Filled in and fleshed out the story with questions and conversations between, came to understand it was the story of their family, their unique gift. It was fantastical and hard to believe, yet everyday she clung to her grandma as she pulled them through time, the fastest way to travel in a world too big for an old lady and curious child. And she waited, eagerly for the day when we could see the strands herself, feel the stuff of the universe under her fingers and pull.

* * *

The second story, the next piece of self, came when Kira was ten years old. They were foraging, baskets heavy with berries and mushrooms and all kinds of things.

“I suppose it’s time I tell you the rules,” Mari said, “since it should be soon for you.”

“What rules?” Kira asked.

“The rules of time weaving,” Mari explained, “I’ve told you the story, again and again, but I’ve never told you the rules.”

Mari laid her basket down and Kira followed suit. They made a picnic of their finds and settled in. Like always, Kira nodded, to let Mari know she was ready.

“They’re really quite simple,” Mari said, “But quite complicated at the same time.”

Mari was struggling to crack open the shell of some nuts they had foraged. Kira grabbed it from her hands and did it for her, cracking it with ease. As she handed it back to her grandma, she noticed how wrinkled, small, and shaking her hands were. Mari was getting old.

“The first is the easiest to remember, because you’ll find it impossible to do,” Mari said and she threw the nut in her mouth, “You cannot mess with Fate. You can move within, through, and around the strands she sets out, but you cannot manipulate them, you cannot rewind what Fate has made happen.”

“I already knew that” Kira said, snacking on her own things, “That’s one of the limiters.”

“I know kid,” Mari said, “But you have to understand. There is going to be a lot you want to do. To rewind, or go back in time and fix, but if Fate is involved you can’t. You’ll find out that your most painful moments, and usually the painful moments of those around you, were laid out by Fate. And Death, he’s Fate’s bitch. Wherever Fate it, he usually is too. You can rarely change time whenever someone dies.”

“That’s why…” Kira said, realizing what Mari was admitting.

“That’s why I couldn’t save your Mom or Dad, when you were so little,” Mari said, a sad looking striking her face for a second and then moving away, “Fate was too involved.”

Despite still being young, Kira knew by now that Mari felt the sadness of her parents death more than she herself ever would. Her mom had died when she gave birth to her, and her Dad died when she was two. There wasn’t a lot left of them for her to mourn, and she hated seeing Mari do it.

“Don’t fuck with Fate,” Kira said with some sass in her voice, “Got it.”

Mari chuckled, “Who gave you a mouth like that?”

“Probably the woman who raised me,” Kira said, a cheesy smile at her grandma.

Mari rolled her eyes, “The second rule, and this one is harder, because you have to make it so. Don’t overlap with yourself. You cannot see, talk, or interact, or touch yourself when you weave. This doesn’t mean you can’t follow the same strands to the same time, but it does mean that when you do so, you must be careful.”

“What happens if you do?”

“You’ll go mad,” Mari explained, “A mistake in our design, that none of the forces accounted for.”

“Okay, don’t meet myself.”

“There’s only one more true rule,” Mari said, “there are others, but they’re more like guidelines than true rules. You don’t need to know those, not yet.”

“What’s the last rule?” Kira asked, eager to hear what she could know now instead of explanations of what she would know later.

“Only tell those who you trust about what you can do,” Mari said seriously, “There’s a reason that we’re nomads, kid. If any person with power found out about what we could do, we’d just become a tool for them. Especially ninjas. They’d love nothing more than someone who could alter time. It’s the way of our family, we never settle, because if we do, the secret is bound to come out.”

“So, you mean I can never tell anyone?” Kira asked, worried.

“No, I just mean, figure out who you can trust, and tell those people – no one else, you’ll be better off for it.”

“How will I know who to trust?”

“You’re a smart girl, I made sure of that,” Mari said, “You’ll know who you can and can’t trust.”

Kira smiled at Mari, glad that her grandma thought so highly of her. But then, her curiosity, which was always there when Mari told her any stories about being a time weaver, was peaked.

“Did you make up all of these rules?”

“No, no,” Mari shook her head, “It was her, the first weaver that Time created. But you’ll learn more about that eventually. It’s not the time for it now.”

Kari rolled her eyes, “Yeah, I’ve heard that before.”

“But one last thing,” Mari said.

Kira looked up, expectant.

“Remember to have fun with it,” Mari said with a smile. And then she held out her hand, an onigiri suddenly appearing in it with a faint amber glow.

Mari took a bite out of it and Kira laughed, knew that she had to remember that one when she could finally weave time. And remember all these rules too, not that they seemed hard to do. Of course, Kira was still too young to understand just how hard these rules would be for her.

* * *

It was two more years before Kira found the next part of herself, the biggest part of herself, really, what she had been waiting her whole life for. Kira woke up one more and she noticed two things. The first was that her stomach was hurting, like a tight fist was wrapped around it. And between her legs there was a smear of blood. She had started her period.

But the second thing was more important. The second thing was that right behind the sight of her legs and the blood, Kira saw it, a tight weaving of every color imaginable, shades of blue and orange and white and red, so much red. Red as vivid as the blood between her legs and red as dark as wine and red as soft as blush. Here and there too, there were thin strands of black, wrapped in the folds of the red. More so than red was the purple, more shades than she could ever imagine, strands thin and thick, woven alongside every other color. To her, purple stood out more than the others, something about it felt good and right and true. And Kira noticed too, that all the strands were quivering, moving slowly between each other, sometimes changing course, the pattern changing. It was slowly and deeply alive, the fabric of reality, forever changing with each second. And Kira could see it, like a shadow beyond her normal vision, super-imposed behind everything she saw.

“Mari!” Kira shouted. She heard a shuffling outside and watched as Mari came into the tent, the fabric of reality moving and changing, strands winding and unwinding as Mari took Kira in. Every small movement shaped and reshaped reality.

“So,” Mari said with a smile, “Today you are a woman, and today you become a time weaver.”

Kira let out an unsure smile. Her stomach still hurt and she felt hot and sticky. Her eyes were aching, a headache already forming, straining to take in so much of reality.

“Well, it’s time for you know everything now,” Mari said and reached her hand out to Kira, “but let’s start slow.”

They took care of her body first. Mari had already told her about periods, about the curse of being a woman. Kira washed off in a river, grabbed some fresh and warm clothes, used the towels like Mari told her. And Mari was waiting at their camp, a cup of hot herb tea in her hands, ready to ease Kira’s cramps.

And then Mari showed her how to tune in and out of the fabric of reality, to unfocus the second sight that she now had, so she could see things as anyone else. It was hard, and Kira’s eyes and head and body strained with the effort. But by the time they were making dinner, Kira could do it easily. See the world as everyone else saw it, and then, like letting herself go, see the world with the fabric of reality shadowed behind it.

Over the next week, Mari taught her how to play with Chance. Chance was easiest, his orange strands thin, his weavings so random and haphazard, clinging to Time with such a soft grip.

Mari and Kira traveled to a nearby town and over the days they were there, Kira undid the strands of Chance and Time that were already woven, pulling apart purple and orange, and suddenly the dish that a street cat had knocked out of a window reversed itself, made new. Mari called this rewinding, undoing what already was. Told Kira that rewinding had a kick back, made whoever’s strands were unwound feel a little sick. Somewhere nearby the cat whose strands had come undone was whining, but Mari assured Kira it would be okay in a moment.

“Rewinding is the easiest thing for weavers to do,” Mari told her, “as undoing strands is simple, no further thought, and usually, no consequences beyond the subtle sickness afterwards.”

“But, depending on what you undo, you’ll often find that rewinding is the hardest. When we rewind something, we’re removing it from reality. It’s the easiest for us to do physically, but the hardest to do emotionally. You’ll need to be prepared for what you lose when you rewind.”

In the next town they traveled to, Mari taught her how to make something come into being. It was more than just undoing the strands, it was undoing them and reworking them, making a new reality out of what already was. This was a little bit harder, this required more thought, more careful planning. In this new town, Mari tasked Kira with creating little bits of happiness for people. Kira walked through the town, undoing and reweaving strands of Chance and Time. An old man decided to walk on a different route and met a new friend, a little kid found a toy she had lost, a young woman walked by a storefront at just the right moment, the young man inside noticing her remarkable smile. All of it happened, all of it came into being, because of Kira’s quick work with the strands of Chance and Time.

“It feels strange,” Kira said as they left the town, “messing with people’s lives.”

“It is strange,” Mari agreed, “A power we’ve been granted, and we have to take great care with. This is why we should always aim for happiness, when we bring things into being.”

“But everyone today, whose strands of Chance and Time you made possible, have better lives because of you. Remember that, always aim for that.”

A few weeks later, after Kira had gotten quick and efficient in both rewinding and creating, Mari showed her how to weave herself into the future. This, she warned, was the most difficult part of weaving. There were two ways you could weave into the future. You could stay in the present, pulling the strands of the future in your vision, where you could see murky images of what was to come. Or you could pull yourself physical along those strands, throwing yourself into a future time. This was what Mari always did when they traveled, simply pulled herself and Kira into a future time and place, cutting their travel time away.

But it was difficult work, it required concentration. First, Mari had her pull the future to her vision. They sat in a restaurant, Kira moving her hands beneath the table as she pulled on Chance and Time, Mari asking her to predict what would happen next – when would someone next walk in, when would someone finish their meal, when would someone would laugh next. It was difficult, sorting through the threads of everything, looking for the specific moments Mari demanded. Kira was exhausted within an hour. But she had done it, had pulled tiny, blurred incremental visions of the future into her head.

“You did good today, but remember that the future is not certain, at least not with Chance,” Mari said as they sat around the campfire that night.

“What do you mean?” Kira asked, confused. The futures she had looked into today were blurred, yes, but they had seemed so sure. And Mari had seemed satisfied with the answers.

“Only Fate is certain, but any other strands, like Chance, can be changed. By us or by any miniscule thing. The fabric of reality is a living, moving, constantly changing thing, even without our human hands taking hold of it. Remember when you’re looking into the future, that only Fate is unwilling to change.”

“So, if I wanted to see my future, my certain future, I’d follow the strands of Fate that lead out from me?” Kira asked, the possibilities running through her head. Mari had been strict so far, only letting Kira push and pull and work with the interwoven strands of Chance and Time. But Time was touching everything else, and Kira was eager to test the boundaries of Space, to see how delicate Life was, to wonder through the braids of Fate and Death.

“Yes, you could,” Mari said after a long pause, “But kid, you can’t concentrate on the future too much. If you found yourself lost, climbing in endless loops on your future Fate, then you’re never in the present, you’re never living the life you have now.”

“Will you ever let me move through Fate’s strands?” Kira asked, her voice eager, “There’s just many and I’m so curious, it doesn’t even have to be my own Fate. We could go back that one town and I could look up that cat’s Fate, just to see what it’s like.”

Mari laughed at that and Kira smiled, hoping she was buttering her up. But then Mari’s eyes turned serious, “Kid, our powers are complicated and hard and so much than you can imagine. If we were ninjas, they’d call it kekkei genkai, because that’s the language they have for that, but it’s so much more. You have to have patience; there’s more to learn yet.”

“How did you learn it?” Kira said. She was disappointed Mari wasn’t budging, but more interested in how Mari herself had came to be, how she had become such a skilled weaver with no one to teach her. After all, Mari was the first girl born in six generations of their family, and only girls could weave time.

Mari smiled, “You’re lucky you have someone to teach you kid, I didn’t have that.”

“I know, that’s why I’m asking.”

Mari let out a sigh, “I suppose it’s time to tell you.”

With shaky hands, Mari reached into her pack, pulling out an old and ragged scroll, wrapped tight.

“This,” Mari said, “this taught me.”

Kira looked at the old thing, both disappointed and curious, “What is it?”

“It’s the weaver’s scroll. Every weaver who has ever existed, from the first one onward, has had this scroll. Every story, every exploration and explanation of our powers and our limits is written in this scroll. It contains the rules, the guidelines, and the advices of every woman in our family who has woven time.”

“There haven’t been very many of us, you know, Chance really did something when he made it so that only women could weave time. Only a hundred or so women have been born into our family since Time created us thousands and thousands of years ago, and all their stories, all their lives, they’re right here.”

Kira looked at the old, ragged scroll in Mari’s hands with a new respect. This was it, every answer to every question she had ever had about herself, every piece of her story and all the stories before her.

“So, you mean the first weaver, that this has been around since her time,” Kira asked, cautious and curious.

“Yep,” Mari said, holding the scroll with affection, “it has some type of jutsu, something that I don’t understand, that makes it bigger on the inside than it actually is. All those stories and all those lives contained in this one scroll. We’re lucky that the men in our family held onto it for so many years. By the time I was born, after generations of men and no powers, they were beginning to think the old stories were just a myth, that everything in here was a lie. But then I was born, and when I was thirteen, when I became a woman, I made the myth a reality again.”

“And now my story is in here, everything that I’ve done and learned about our powers, I’ve written it all down, and you will too one day.”

“When do I get the scroll?” Kira asked, excited about the prospect of reading it. Even more excited by the prospect of adding to it.

Mari chuckled, “Don’t be too eager. A weaver keeps it until they die, so it will pass to you then.”

Kira was deflated, didn’t want to imagine her grandma dying, “Well, we know that won’t be for a long time.”

Mari’s eyes lost their sparkle, her voice was quiet, “Don’t be so certain Kira. I’m ninety years old, and not what I once was. I’m holding on for you as best I can.”

Kira’s heart dropped. She knew how old Mari was, of course, but she didn’t like to think about it, didn’t like to imagine the toll that it took on Mari to keep living for her.

Mari noticed her granddaughter’s face, knew she had spoken too honestly, “Don’t give me that look kid. I’m tough, don’t worry.”

Kira nodded. And then she thought about what she had learned today, how she had learned to pull bits and pieces of the future into her vision. She knew that weavers couldn’t see their own deaths, that was one of the limiters. But that was only their own death. Maybe Kira could look into the future, could see her grandma’s death, could find a way to stop it…or at least prepare for it.

“Grandma, couldn’t I look ahead?”

“No,” Mari said sharply, her voice dark in a way it almost never was. “I know what you’re thinking Kira and you can’t. You can’t look ahead to try to see my death, to try to stop it. I won’t allow it.”

“But—”

“There are no buts!” Mari yelled angrily. Kira was taken aback, scared even. Her grandma had hardly yelled at her in their twelve years together.

“You have to promise me Kira,” Mari said, her voice less hard this time, and more pleading, “Don’t go searching the future for my death.”

“Okay,” Kira said, her voice soft and small, her heart hurting.

“Good,” Mari said, a smile returning to her face, her warmness returning. She put the scroll gently back into her pack, “Tomorrow we’ll start you on moving into the future, see if you can be in charge of travel arrangements from now on.”

Kira let out a hesitant smile, “Okay, that sounds nice.”

Later that night, Kira was still thinking about their conversation. Thinking about how much there was so much they could do, so much they could make possible, yet Mari wasn’t doing it. She intended to keep her promise to Mari about not looking for her death, didn’t know if she could handle it if she saw it anyway.

But Kira could follow her own thread of Fate. She knew Mari had warned her not to get too caught up in the future, to stay in the present, but Kira was curious, and it couldn’t hurt to take a little look ahead. And she wanted to push herself too, she had had only pulled visions of the near future today. She wanted to look further, to test her limits.

She thought sixteen would be a nice place to settle, to search. To her young mind, sixteen seemed like the prime of life, like the teenagers they often saw as they passed through towns and villages, whose lives seemed so exciting to Kira. What would her life look at sixteen, what was it Fated to be?

Kira pulled gently on the strands of Fate, and felt the resistance there, how she could move along it but not change it, like it was frozen thickly into place. Kira pulled further, reaching through the years, speeding through so quickly she made nothing out along the way. And finally, she landed there, her eyes and hands and heart straining, the depth of looking four years into the future taking all of her strength.

The image was blurry, even blurrier than the near futures she pulled on earlier that day. But despite the blurriness, there was something solid in the weight of the image, a heft that playing with Chance hadn’t given to her. This was the weight of Fate, its place in reality.

In the blur, Kira saw herself, older and laughing. On either side of her was a boy. One of them was tall and a little lanky, but strong looking. He had a puff of white hair, a mask covering half of his face, a ninja headband covering one of his eyes. He was laughing too, looked young and joyful and only a little older than sixteen-year old Kira. The other boy was a teenager too but a little shorter, though still strong looking. His dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, his tan skin smooth expect for a scar across his nose. He too had a ninja headband and was laughing along with the others.

This made Kira curious – she pulled a little further, a few more weeks. Again, she saw the blurred images of her older self with the boys. They were all in the woods, the brunette one showing Kira how to throw some kunai, a soft smile and blush on his face. The other one was in a tree above them, and it sounded like he was teasing them both.

Kira was fascinated by them, the two ninjas who her future self appeared so close too, two ninjas who were fated to be in her life.

She pulled back and forth along these visions, moving between a series of months in her sixteenth year. And always, always it was those two boys. Sometimes she was with one of them alone, sometimes it was together, and other times there were other teenagers on the peripheries, ninjas too, from the headbands they wore. But the one constant were the two boys and the happiness she felt with them.

But then it became too much, the pull of Fate into her vision was too hard to hold. Kira let go and felt her mind falling through the years, landing in her head again, beside her grandma in their tent, twelve and young and curious about the Fated future she had just saw.

“Kira,” Mari said, turning over and looking at her granddaughter, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” Kira lied quickly.

“Kira.”

“Yes?”

“Go to sleep,” Mari told her.

And Kira did, visions of her future self swimming in her head, the faces of those two boys at the edges of her consciousness.

* * *

Over the next few months, Mari taught her more and more about all of it, always simple things. Undoing Chance and Time here and there, making something happen, moving in small doses through the future.

And each night, after Mari went to sleep, Kira pulled visions along the strands of Fate, looking into her own future. Although it was like looking at something half-formed, half there, Kira learned about her future self and the life she had more and more. The boys’ names were Kakashi and Iruka, and they were her best friends. When she was around them, her future self was always recklessly happy. And there were others too, weaved in with strands of Chance – a goofy ninja in green clothes, a boy who her future self really bonded with. Two other teen girls, who she shared giggles and gossip with. Gathering with big groups, with lots of drinking and dancing, future Kira teaching her friends what Mari had taught her; there was nothing a good fit of dancing couldn’t cure. Some moments, Kira noticed, were blank. A moment she could sense but couldn’t see, like scenes Fate hadn’t written yet but had left space for anyway. These moments became more and more frequent as Kira pulled visions from her sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth years. Kira tried to ignore them.

Kira knew she should heed Mari’s warnings about getting too caught up in the future, in ignoring her present. But Kira was presen during the day, learning more and more about what she could do with Time. And at night, she rewarded herself with visions of her Fated future life, like watching a blurry television show.

There was something more to it too, something Kira’s young mind couldn’t quite put into words. She wasn’t just taking her future in like a passive observer as she pulled visions of it closer to herself; she was really feeling them. Her feelings were blurred and uneasy, but she sensed the joy her future self felt, could feel the bonds she would have with all these people, could feel the way that they made her feel whole. And she loved them for it. It was a strange feeling, at twelves years old, already knowing the love and affection and inside jokes you would have with future friends, already feeling like they would never be strangers, but like people she had always known, Kakashi and Iruka most of all.

Kira wanted to talk to Mari about it but talking about it meant admitting to doing exactly what Mari warned Kira against. And there was the other thing too, the thing Kira pushed to the back of her mind – no matter what future strand Kira pulled through – Fate, Chance, or anything else – Mari wasn’t there.

And then, Mari wasn’t there.

A few weeks before her thirteenth birthday, almost a year into being a woman, into being a weaver, into watching a future she couldn’t wait for, Kira woke up to strands of black and red lacing through her vision, Fate and Death, tied together.

Kira bolted up and looked beside her, where Mari looked like she was still asleep. But she was covered in it, woven black and red across the reality of Mari.

“Mari?” Kira asked, her voice small, shaking. Mari didn’t stir.

“Grandma,” Kira asked, her voice softer and higher this time, on the edge of breaking.

“Please,” she said, softer again, reaching out to touch Mari’s face.

She was cold, skin pale and wrinkled, and so, so, cold. This is what broke Kira. Mari, who had always been full of warmth and light and joy. Who told fun jokes and made wise cracks and didn’t care that ladies shouldn’t curse. Who had made Kira dance when she was sad. Who was teaching Kira how to be a person, how to use her powers responsibly, to never take for granted the life that she was given.

Mari, who was now nothing more than a corpse.

“No!” Kira shouted, hot tears spilling out of her. The shift from realization to anger so visceral and real and burning.

Kira reached her hands out and gripped at the strands of red and black, pulled as hard as she could, but they would not budge. She scratched and screamed and cried and tried to rip them open, but reality would not move, Death and Fate too strong together.

But Kira wouldn’t stop, kept pulling and tearing and screaming, kept trying to undo what she knew couldn’t be undone, the first rule, don’t fuck with Fate. Kira didn’t care about Fate, she didn’t care about anything else but the fact that Mari was cold, that Mari wasn’t Mari.

Fate and Death watched on as the child struggled and tossed and ravaged against them. Their hold was so strong, they barely felt it. Neither of them felt bad for the girl. They knew she was young, but Mari’s life had been full and long and she had met her Fated Death in peace. This girl was just throwing a temper tantrum, one they wouldn’t abided. They looked at each other and nodded.

Kira noticed that the strands she gripped began to glow, the faint amber light that accompanied all the weaving work that she and Mari did, and for a moment, Kira felt hope, felt like she was doing what no weaver had done before. But then her hands started burning, her grip suddenly boiling. She pulled them back, screaming, blisters and blood appearing across her palms.

Kira looked at her hands and screamed, louder than she had before. Reality would rather burn her alive than let her bring Mari back. It would take Kira hours and hours before she stopped screaming.

And when she did, she moved in silence. She pulled supplies from their bags and wrapped her hands, her face cold and ashen. And then she walked to the closest town, only half a mile away, and found a shovel in someone’s back yard. She would return it, it wasn’t really stealing. As the sun began to set, Kira began to dig, feeling the weight of each lump of earth she pushed up, the heft of it breaking open her blisters and tearing deeper in the burns on her hands, fresh blood soaking through the bandages she had put on earlier. She didn’t notice, she just kept digging.

When the hole was big enough, she lifted Mari up, surprised by how light she was, and gently rolled her in, covered her in dirt. Kira did all of this without feeling anything, the pain in her hands, the cold of the night as it came on. Motion, the movement, of digging, and moving, and covering – that was all she felt.

Just as she finished, just as she sat back, as the motion stopped, as she had nothing to keep her from feeling, a glowing amber light appeared softly in front of her.

There was a man there, standing in the fading amber light. Kira recognized him immediately – Kakashi. But this man was not the teenager of her visions, of her Fated future self. He was taller and broader, everything about him older. The Kakashi she had seen her future self with was no older than twenty, at max, but this Kakashi was much older and ragged. At least in his thirties, maybe older than that. And, Kira saw, it looked like he had been crying. His exposed eye rimmed in red. He was the Kakashi she loved in the future, the young man she knew to be one of her closest friends. But he was also not; he was someone more, a future she hadn’t seen.

She had no idea why he was appearing here now, knew she should question it more, but all she said was, her voice scratchy and sore from all the screaming, “Kakashi?”

He chuckled, a laugh deeper than that she had already heard in the future. Older and more bitter than she could perceive, “I knew you would know me, but it’s still a surprise.”

“Why?” Kira let out, almost a whisper, her throat too sore for more.

He looked like he was smiling under his mask. He reached into one of the pockets of his vest, pulled out a few sheets of paper.

“I’m here to share this with you,” he said, shaking the papers for emphasis, “You knew that you would need it.”

“Need what?” Kira asked, curiosity peaked, a feeling to break through the nothing of it all.

Kakashi sat down beside her, looked her in the eye in a soft, comforting way.

“It’s the story of hope,” Kakashi said, unfolding the papers, “It’s the story of a girl named Kira.”

* * *

Kira may not seem like she matters to the story now, and maybe she doesn’t, not directly, but she has a play in all the parts that will touch our heroes’ lives. While their stories happen, Kira’s story is in the background, all the strands moving and shifting and making it so. And while our heroes fight for their lives in the Chunnin Exam, Kira is at the Scrapyard, secrets and hope and time and all managed there.

She may not seem important yet, but she will be. Be prepared to find her _Between_ and in the _Corners_ , again and again, before she makes it _Here._


	12. (Here) New Friends and Old Tests

Naruto Uzumaki was excited. Not that it ever took much to get him pumped up, but this was a different kind of excitement, an excitement tinged with hope. It was finally Naruto’s chance to prove himself, to show others just how strong he was, just how much he had grown over the last six months.

Last week, he found a scroll that invited him to take the Chunnin Exams, where he would compete to move up in the ninja ranks, along with ninjas from all over the world. Kakashi called a meeting that same afternoon. He looked exhausted, for some reason, but explained to them what the Chunnin Exam really meant. He told them there would be a lot of eyes on them because it was unusual for a rookie team so fresh from the Academy to be taking the exam. Kakashi told them the test would be dangerous, that people frequently died during it, but that he had faith in them anyway. But it was their decision, really, to decide if they wanted to take it as a team.

Naruto was worried for a moment that his teammates weren’t going to compete, but their ‘yes’ replies had been even more enthusiastic than his own. And now here he was, ready to deliver all that annoying paperwork they had to fill out. He caught the pink and raven hair of Sakura and Sasuke around the corner and sped up.

“Ready to kick some ass?” he yelled with a smile.

Not too far behind Naruto, Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji took the same path to the building where everyone was required to turn in their paperwork. Shikamaru Nara was hesitant, worried about what this exam would entail, just how much struggle it would cause.

Last week, his mother dropped a scroll on his stomach, waking him up, asking him why he already thought he was hot shit enough to compete in the Chunnin Exams. Shikamaru had no idea what she was talking about, was annoyed by being woken up so early.

But she dragged him down the hall, and his dad told him about the Chunnin Exams, said it meant Asuma had submitted his team to compete. It was virtually unheard of that a rookie team with such little experience would compete, so his mother was worried, is all. Well, Shikamaru thought, her worry feels a lot like anger.

Then, in the meeting Asuma called that same day, more chipper than they had ever seen him, he told them the same thing that Shikamaru’s dad had told him, that rookie teams rarely participated, but Asuma believed in them. He thought they had the stuff to make it through. But Asuma also told them it was hard, that in agreeing to compete they would be putting their lives at risk, submitting their bodies to hardships, putting their minds to the test.

It all sounded like too much work, but when Asuma asked him if he wanted to compete, he felt himself saying ‘yes,’ a deep force compelling him that he couldn’t describe. Chouji and Ino’s answers were just as and quick and easy as his.

Just as they rounded the corner, they heard a shout, and Shikamaru saw a face he hadn’t seen in a long time. Looks like they weren’t the only rookie team competing, he thought.

Approaching from a different direction, Hinata Hyuga waved goodbye to Kurenai as she went on her business. Kurenai had told her this was part of it, delivering their own paperwork, that this was when the exam really began.

Hinata was nervous, but a different type of nervous than she was used to. Hinata was used to nervous feelings laced with fear and uncertainty, in measuring her steps and her breath and her existence, in making sure she was never too much or never too little for her father. But this type of nervous had disappeared from her radar over the last few months of living with Kurenai, of being able to be easy with herself.

“Yo, Hinata,” Kiba said, bounding up beside her, Akamaru running alongside him. Shino appeared silently at her other side.

“Hey guys,” Hinata said with a soft smile.

Last week, she had found a scroll waiting for her outside the door, similar to the one that had been waiting for Kurenai before that. Kurenai was excited when Hinata found it, told her everything would be explained in a meeting later that afternoon, and then fell back to sleep, told Hinata she’d be awake later that morning.

The night before Hinata’s scroll appeared, she had finally figured out what she had been wondering for a while now, if Kurenai had a boyfriend. Her curiosity had sparked when she first moved into Kurenai’s place, saw that way some nights Kurenai would come back to the apartment giddy and flushed. Or other nights when she told Hinata she had business to attend to and would stay out all night. And just the other night, Hinata woke up to the sounds of Kurenai’s laughter, just outside the door. Curiosity got the better of her. She slipped out of her bed, peeked out the window, and caught a quick image of Kurenai kissing someone goodbye, a man Hinata had never seen before. A rush of happiness went through her – she was glad Kurenai had this.

Hinata scurried back to her bed before Kurenai came in, but apparently not quickly enough.

“Did I wake you?” Kurenai asked.

Hinata shrugged her shoulders, “It’s not problem.”

Kurenai let out a huge smile, and Hinata sensed the same giddy energy in Kurenai that she had sensed from time to time, “You didn’t hear or see anything, did you?”

Hinata’s face flushed, giving Kurenai her answer.

“And what do you think?” Kurenai asked cautiously.

Hinata let out a gentle smile, “I’m think it’s nice, I think you deserve some happiness.”

Kurenai smiled at Hinata and rustled her hair, told Hinata she was too kind, asked Hinata if she thought she was bad guardian, for getting a little tipsy and kissing someone outside the door. It was a strange sort of vulnerability, one that Hinata hadn’t seen in Kurenai yet, and one that Hinata was sure was brought on by the alcohol she mentioned. Hinata assured Kurenai that she wasn’t a bad guardian, not at all, that she still deserved to have a life, that enjoying herself didn’t mean she was neglecting Hinata. There was the unsaid part too, the part Hinata was too scared to admit to Kurenai yet, afraid she’d come across as too needy or something else. Hinata wanted to tell Kurenai that the last few months living with her had been the happiest in her life, but she couldn’t say it, not yet.

Instead, they both went to sleep. And the next day there was the scroll for Hinata and the meeting Kurenai called that afternoon. The meeting where Kurenai told them she had submitted them all for the upcoming Chunnin Exams, how this was a big deal because they were rookies. She told them too, that the other rookie teams, the other genin who had been their academy classmates for all those years, were competing as well. Kurenai told them how much of a risk it would be, how much she believed they could take that risk head on, how much she knew what they were worth. But it was up to them, if they wanted to compete.

Hinata’s ‘yes’ was more confident than anyone expected. It gave Kiba and Shino the courage to say yes too.

“You ready for this?” Kiba asked as they turned the corner.

As they did, Hinata recognized all her old classmates. Her cheeks flushed when her eyes landed on Naruto. She realized then that she wasn’t nervous, she was excited.

“Yes,” Hinata answered, “I am.”

Just like that, the Rookie Nine were reunited. In the last six months, their paths had taken them in different directions, forces of Fate and Chance pulling each of them along new patterns and ideas and strengths. But the Chunnin Exams had brought them together again, and from now on, those paths would be forever intertwined, their stories overlapping. Only, they didn’t know that yet. But they were about to find out.

* * *

“Yo!” Kiba shouted to anyone who could hear, “Long time no see!”

Everyone turned to look at him, just as surprised to see each other as he was to see them.

“Six months isn’t actually that long,” Shino muttered.

Kiba rolled his eyes at that, “So what have you all been up to?”

“Kicking ass, that’s what!” Naruto responded with a grin and then broke out in story, babbling about his team’s mission in the Land of Waves, and everything that went wrong with it. For a moment, it felt like everyone was in the academy again, Naruto overeager and talking too much. Usually, they would ignore him, or someone would tell him to pipe down. But strangely, this time, they felt like listening.

Sasuke rolled his eyes as Naruto told the story. He was glossing over all the gritty bits, painting himself the hero. Sasuke didn’t particularly feel like a reunion, so he hopped into one of the tree branches above, staying out of sight.

Sakura’s eyes followed him up, but she made no move to follow him or ask questions. We she looked forward again, Ino was standing beside her.

“Sakura,” Ino said, her voice tinged with venom.

“Ino,” Sakura replied, just as haughtily.

“I guess being on Sasuke’s team really made no difference. He didn’t even want to be seen standing by you,” Ino said, looking quickly up into the branches where Sasuke had disappeared.

“Oh, so you’re still jealous he’s my teammate, I see?” Sakura asked, knowing this was a sore point for Ino.

Just above them, Sasuke heard everything they said and rolled his eyes. They were silly to him, trying to win his affections when it was impossible. He only had time to focus on one thing – his brother.

“So, you could say that we’re all pretty badass, we took on two S-rank ninjas and won,” Naruto finished up, pride written all over his face.

Hinata smiled at him, remembered the last time she saw him, the night before that mission. She was glad it had all turned out okay, glad he had made it back safely.

“Naruto,” Sakura said, “It was actually a lot more complex than that. And it was mostly Instructor Kakashi anyway.”

Naruto flushed, “You don’t have to tell them that.”

“That Gato guy in your story sounds a lot like that dude we had to take on,” Chouji said, “What was his name again?”

“It was Enji,” Shikamaru said. “Our instructor told us there’s a lot of people like him. Corrupt businessmen who hire rogue ninjas to do a bunch of shit.”

“So, you guys took this guy on?” Kiba asked, interested.

Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders, “Mostly.”

“Shikamaru isn’t telling it right,” Chouji said, excitement in his voice. “Enji captured Asuma. We had to rescue him.”

“Yeah, but don’t forget about the guy who helped us,” Ino reminded them, “Sho.”

Ino remembered because she had found Sho mysterious and cute, but he was clearly older than her and she would never see him again. Better to focus her sights on someone closer to her in age and place, like Sasuke.

“Well, we went to Nagi Island,” Kiba said, not wanting to be one-upped by their stories.

“Yeah,” Naruto said, looking toward Hinata, “I heard about that.”

Hinata flushed and smiled softly, happy he had remembered their conversation.

“But did you hear about how we took out a whole gang of ninjas who were trying to get to the woman we were searching for?” Kiba said, indignant. Akamaru yelped in response. “Tell him Shino, wasn’t it awesome?”

“We fought a gang of ninjas, yes,” Shino said in a monotone.

“Hinata?” Kiba asked, wanting someone to back him up.

“Um,” Hinata stammered, all the attention on her, “It was a little scary, but we managed to fight them off. There were at least ten of them and we took them all out.”

Kiba smirked, satisfied with that.

“Well what about that woman you were searching for?” Ino asked, a stickler for details.

Kiba deflated then, and so did Shino and Hinata, “It’s complicated.”

And it was, of course, more complicated than that. All their missions were more complex than they were letting on, all of them had gone through things they weren’t sure they could express, met people who had stories and lives of their owns, who had made an impact on them. There were other things too, the way they all felt closer to each other, each team growing in its own way, touched by Fate and Chance in its varying measures. They were the Rookie Nine, but they were also their own teams, their own people, and they could not return to only being classmates, like they once were. So much had changed in the last six months, and no one really knew how to express that.

Naruto chuckled, “Well complicated isn’t gonna help you beat us in the Chunnin Exams.”

“So, we’re all here for the same thing, huh?” Shikamaru said. He had already figured it out earlier, but wanted it said aloud so everyone could understand.

“Yeah, Instructor Kakashi knows we’re gonna kick ass,” Naruto said with a grin.

“And Instructor Asuma has faith in us,” Ino added.

“Kurenai…I mean Instructor Kurenai,” Hinata said, a little shakily, “said we’re up to the challenge.”

They realized in that moment that it meant they would all be competing. They weren’t exactly sure what the Chunnin Exams would entail but had learned enough about them at the Academy to know that it was a competition, that not all of them would make it out as Chunnin. For some of them, this was exciting. For others, it was scary. But no one said anything about that. Instead Naruto said…

“Well, I know I’m gonna be a Chunnin by the end of this.”

As he said this, he took a few steps back and stumbled, hitting someone bigger than him. It knocked him to the ground, and Naruto scrambled back to his feet.

“Why don’t you watch where you’re going punk,” someone said, that someone being the person Naruto had bumped into.

He looked a little older than them, wore a black jumpsuit and hood, had purple paint on his face. On his back was something large and wrapped in bandages. Beside him stood a girl who also looked a little older than the rest of them, with blond hair and purple clothes. What looked like a giant fan was strapped to her back. Both of them wore headbands with the Sand Village symbol, and both looked intimidating.

This didn’t stop Naruto, “Who are you calling a punk?!”

The boy chuckled, “Wow, you’re just a tiny twerp, aren’t you?”

“Who are you calling a twerp?” Naruto yelled, facing the boy, who was much taller than Naruto – though most people were taller than Naruto, if we’re being honest. Almost everyone else felt themselves tense, remembered why Naruto annoyed them, didn’t want him starting anything with these strange ninjas.

Hinata shot a worried glance at the girl with the fan, and the girl softened her eyes a little in return.

“Kankuro,” the girl said, her voice sounding exhausted “It wouldn’t even be worth it, leave him alone.”

Kankuro, the boy who had been antagonizing Naruto, let out a huff, “Come on, just let me have some fun.”

The girl let out a sigh, “Fine, but I’m not helping.”

She looked at Hinata, gave her a slight shrug of her shoulders.

Kankuro chuckled and turned toward Naruto, cracking his knuckles. “This will be fun.”

Naruto took a defensive stance. The others didn’t know what to do, didn’t know if they should step in or not. Sasuke, looking down from the tree, was trying to decide whether he should jump in now or later. But then he heard a voice beside him, deep and sudden.

“Kankuro, Temari,” the voice said, “Stop this nonsense.”

And then was a boy there, standing upside down on the bottom side of the branch Sasuke was on. A boy that looked closer to the rookies in age than the other two, but somehow had a more defiant presence, his hair a blazing red and his bright eyes rimmed with the deepest dark circles any of them had saw. Sasuke jumped down, joined the rest of the rookies, and looked up at him. The boy didn’t even flinch when Sasuke moved, and Sasuke hadn’t even felt him coming.

As soon as the boy spoke, told them to stop, Kankuro’s face dropped and he backed off. The girl, Temari, although she wasn’t doing anything, looked hesitant too. All of the rookies looked at the boy hanging from the tree, and then, quicker than any of them could see, he was suddenly in front of the other two. Just like them, he had a Sand Village headband, and something strapped to his back. It looked like a giant gourd, even bigger than the boy himself.

“Let’s get this over with,” the boy said, his voice just as deep and before. The other two nodding in response. There was something menacing about his energy, and Temari and Kankuro seemed to deflect to him.

The three of them walked toward the door, the Rookie Nine clearing a space for them as they went, looking at them in fascination.

Shikmaru didn’t realize he was blocking the door, just curious about these new ninjas, about the fight that almost happened, when the girl yelled at him, her voice harsh.

“Hey, you, move out of the way!”

Shikamaru stumbled out of the way, Temari glaring at him as they passed and went inside. He gulped after they went in, as he felt the tension break in the air.

Everyone else felt it too, the way everything fell back into the relaxed air it had before, when it was just them there. They had gone on missions and met strangers and villains alike, but something about that boy, and the way the other two followed him, set them all on edge.

“I guess that’s the real competition,” Kiba said, after the tension broke.

Everyone looked around, eyes wary, suddenly realizing that this would be so much more than they expected, that they would have so much more than just each other to worry about.

* * *

Inside the building, the three strangers made their way toward a crowd at the end of the hall. Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari Sabaku had never been to The Leaf Village before, and from what they had seen, it wasn’t much. Besides, there were bigger things at stake than this exam, really, and the competition was just for show. They all knew this, and they all had varying opinions about it.

Ahead of them, a crowd was gathered, tense and unsure. The three siblings realized the problem as they approached the crowd – two Leaf Village ninjas blocking a door, labeled 101, the room where everyone had been directed to turn in the necessary paperwork for the Chunnin exams.

“Get out of the way,” someone from the crowd said, pushing forward toward the two ninjas blocking the doors. One of them, the one with bandages on his face, chuckled and threw a swift punch at the guy who spoke, knocking him back.

“I told you to stay back,” the one who hadn’t spoken said.

“Yeah, no one’s getting in here,” the other said, raising his fist as if he would hit someone again.

Both the ninjas in front of the doors were kids too, no older than anyone in the crowd, but given the tension, this had to have been going on for a while, those two blocking the door for everyone who tried to enter.

“How annoying,” Gaara said darkly, an empty stare at the two ninjas blocking the doors. Temari gave Kankuro a nervous glance; he shrugged his shoulders at her. They had no idea if it would annoy Gaara enough for him to do something about it, and they would rather wait until the exams really started before the bloodshed began.

The door to the building opened again as a new set of ninjas strolled in, the Rookie Nine moving in together, following the three strangers after what they felt was an appropriate amount of time. As they did, they were surprised by the crowd, by just how many ninjas were there, vying to be Chunnin. Shino tried to quickly count how many people were there; a hundred, at least. Kiba noticed that no one else seemed to have animal companion, and he smirked at that, knew that would give him an advantage. Hinata looked at the crowd and scanned the faces she didn’t know and then saw the face she did, a cold chill went down her spine. Ino was surprised by the variety in the crowd, the way her and the other rookies were definitely the youngest, while many of the others looked like teens and adults. Chouji noticed everyone’s headbands, the symbols of all the different villages he had heard about, but never really seen. Shikamaru let out a sigh when he caught the two ninjas guarding the door, didn’t realize it’d be so much trouble just to turn in paperwork. Sakura was surprised by the crowd, but was more surprised by how off everything seemed, a strange feeling giving her goosebumps. Sasuke smirked to himself as he sized up the crowd, knew he could probably take anyone here. And Naruto, he was just confused by what was going on.

At the front of the crowd, a new ninja stepped up. A ridiculous looking fellow, really, in a tight green jump suit and orange legwarmers, with black shining brows and hair.

“Excuse me,” he said, his voice surprisingly formal, “But it’s really rude to be blocking the doorway like that. As you can see, many of us are trying to access it.”

“Did you hear that Izumo?” the one with bandages asked, mocking the guy’s formal tone, “We’re blocking the door for them.”

“Oh no Kotetsu,” the one called Izumo chuckled, “It’s like he thinks we care.”

“I really don’t think it’s honorable to make fun of someone’s speech,” the boy in green said, just as formally.

“Yeah, yeah,” Izumo and Kotetsu said together, and then in a swift and synchronous motion, they kicked the guy back. He hit the ground hard.

“Lee!” a girl from the crowd shouted, bending over him. She glared at the two guys blocking the door, “You assholes.”

“Honestly, we’re just trying to help you,” Izumo said.

“Yeah,” Kotetsu added, “The Chunnin Exam is a serious thing. If you’re not strong enough to get past us and deliver your papers, what makes you think you’re strong enough to take the exam?”

The crowd rustled at that, too many of them nursing bruises from having gone up against Izumo and Kotetsu as they guarded the door. They were on edge and tired of this, ready to leave before the exams even began.

“You should just give up now,” Izumo said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Naruto, annoyed by this, stepped forward, “Who are you telling to give up?”

The boy on the ground, Lee, was curious and looked up. Shikamaru rolled his eyes at this, thought about how Naruto couldn’t go ten minutes without starting a fight. Hinata was worried about Naruto, but the figure behind the boy and the girl on the ground, long hair and silverly Hyuga eyes, made her hesitate. She pushed herself behind Shino and Kiba so she wouldn’t be seen.

Kankuro leaned over and whispered to Temari and Gaara, “That punk is eager, isn’t he?”

Temari smirked and Gaara cast him a dark look. Kankuro let out a sigh and quickly looked down. Up front, Izumo and Kotetsu both chuckled, looking Naruto up and down.

“Weaklings like you, that’s who,” Kotetsu said.

“Hey!” Naruto started but then Sasuke stepped in front of him, annoyed by this whole thing.

“That’s a valid argument,” Sasuke said coolly, “But you’re gonna let me through that door.”

“Naruto, Sasuke,” Sakura said, realizing suddenly why everything felt off, “Don’t waste your time, it’s a gentjustu.”

Izumo and Kotetsu looked at each other. Izumo spoke, “So you figured us out, didn’t you?”

“This isn’t room 101,” Sakura said, realizing that’s where the strangeness in the air came from, “And you’re not kids either.”

Kotetsu nodded, “Impressive.”

Then, at the same time, Izumo and Kotetsu did the motions to undo a genjutsu. The number marking the door melted away, turning into 105 instead of 101. Izumo and Kotetsu shot up, transforming into adult versions of themselves, their true selves.

“All right,” Izumo said, his voice deeper and louder now, “Because this kunoichi was clever enough to see her way through our genjutsu, you call get to turn in your paperwork for the exams.”

“Follow us to room 101, down the hall to turn in your paperwork,” Kotetsu said, gesturing down the hallway, “And return here, to room 105, in an hour for the first portion of the exam.”

There was an audible sigh of relief from the crowd as they ambled after the two now grown men. Sakura blushed, happy to have seen through it, and followed the rest of the crowd to turn in their paperwork.

* * *

As the crowd trickled back down the hall, the Rookie Nine naturally congregated together, no one else as familiar as each other. Another group parted from the crowd and approached them; the same boy in green from before, the girl who had helped him, and another boy, who had long brown hair and strange silverly eyes.

“Hey, you,” the boy with the silvery eyes asked, looking at Sasuke, “What’s your name?”

Sasuke paused, and so did Naruto and Sakura, curious about the ninja who was calling Sasuke out. Shikamaru nodded at Ino and Chouji, and they stayed too, curious about anyone they’d be competing against. Noticing that the others were staying, Shino and Kiba paused. Hinata, huddled behind them, noticed that for the smallest of second, the boy who had talked to Sasuke, glanced at her and then away. He looked at her like he was nothing.

“I’m not obliged to say,” Sasuke said darkly. He glared at the kid, though, ready to deal with whatever came his way.

Sakura felt on edge. There had already been too many tense moments, and the exams hadn’t even started; they needed to rest before they did.

“Come one Sasuke,” Sakura said, trying to pull on his arm, “Let’s just go.”

“Sakura,” Sasuke said with an annoyed sigh, pulling his arm from her grip.

The boy who had asked his name smirked, “So you’re Sasuke…Uchiha I presume?”

Sasuke gave a barely perceptible nod.

“The same Sasuke Uchiha who they’re saying is the number one rookie of the most recent graduating class?”

Sasuke smirked then, happy to know other people had heard of him, figured out why this guy was trying to hound him. He let his ego take over for a moment. “If that’s what they say... Why? Scared of the competition?”

The guy chuckled, “Hardly.”

“Hey,” Naruto said, butting in, annoyed that, as usual, Sasuke was getting all the attention. “Do you want to know my name?”

“No,” the guy said, throwing a cold glance at Naruto.

“Well if you don’t have anything else to say,” Sasuke said curtly, turning around.

“Wait,” the guy in the green jumpsuit said, “Neji may not anything else to say to you, but I do. I’d like to challenge you to a fight.”

“Right now?” Sasuke said, remembering how easily the guy in green had been kicked before. Even if he wanted to fight right now, it wouldn’t last long. And Neji, he thought, that’s the other guy’s name. He’d remember that.

“Yes,” the boy said, the same formal tone as before.

“Lee, Instructor Guy doesn’t want us fighting before the exams,” the girl beside him said, placing emphasis on the final words.

“I know Ten-Ten,” Lee said, “But I wouldn’t mind challenging the number one rookie.”

“Neji,” Ten-Ten said, glancing to the guy with the strange eyes, “Stop him.”

“If he wants to waste his time fighting some rookie,” Neji said with disdain, “I won’t stop him.”

Lee nodded at Neji and then turned back to Sasuke, “My name is Rock Lee, and I challenge you, Sasuke Uchiha, to a fight.”

While most of the other competitors had dispersed, finding a space to rest after turning in their paperwork and before the exams began, the Rookie Nine stood where they had stilled earlier, watching the conversation take place. The three Sand ninjas from before were walking down the hall, and the smaller one, Gaara, stopped. Kankuro and Temari pausing behind him.

“Sasuke,” Sakura pleaded, “You really don’t have to do it.”

“It won’t take long,” Sasuke said, shrugging his shoulders and looking at the guy.

“Wait!” Naruto shouted, “This is ridiculous! Everyone is Sasuke this, Sasuke that, it’s so annoying. I’ll take this guy on.”

“It’s not you who I want to fight,” Lee said.

“Whatever!” Naruto said and launched himself at Lee. Lee barely moved, and with a flick of his wrist, tapped Naruto on the shoulder, flinging him out of the way. Naruto caught himself on his hand and spun around, aiming a kick at Lee’s head. Lee ducked in a flash and in a quick succession, hit Naruto with a spinning kick, sending him into the wall.

Ten-Ten rolled her eyes, feeling bad for the boy. Neji looked bored, like he had seen this same charade from Lee too often. Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji reeled back, amazed by how quickly and calmly the boy had moved. Kiba’s mouth dropped, not believing it was the same guy who had taken a kick so quickly before. Shino’s reaction, more or less the same, but less expressive. And Hinata felt her heart race, scared for Naruto, but not wanting to get into Neji’s line of sight again.

“Interesting,” Gaara said lightly, his deep voice almost a whisper, as the Sand ninjas watched from a little further down the hall. Temari didn’t care much about the action that was happening, but knew she probably should, if it was catching Gaara’s attention. But instead, Temari was looking at the girl whose eyes she had caught outside, who looked scared, both for the shrimpy dude who had just been thrown into the wall and of the guy with silverly eyes who had started the whole conversation. She felt a strange sad tug in her gut, but shook it off, looking away from the nervous looking girl and back at the guy in green, following Gaara’s line of sight.

Sakura cringed as she heard Naruto hit the wall. Clearly this guy was no joke. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him. It must have been a trick before, taking the kicks from Izumo and Kotetsu so easily. The girl, Ten-Ten, had said they weren’t meant to fight before the exams, probably because their instructor didn’t want them showing off full strength.

“Sorry, but you’re no match for me,” Lee said, casting a quick glance at Naruto as he pulled himself, rubbing his head. Lee brought his eyes back to Sasuke, “You may be the number one rookie, but I am the strongest of all the genin in the Leaf Village.”

The Rookie Nine glance between their teams. To them, Sasuke had always been the strongest of all of them. But obviously there were other genin too, and just maybe this guy wasn’t exaggerating about this.

This statement didn’t dissuade Sasuke. If anything, it excited him. It’d be fun to strip that title from this Lee’s hands, “Fine, I’ll do it.”

Without giving Lee a second to think, Sasuke sprinted at him, jumping above for an overhead attack. Lee jumped up too, and Sasuke caught the way his legs moved, as quick as they were, heading for his face. He threw his arm up, guarding his face. But then he felt it, the sudden kick to his face, sending him flying back, into the wall opposite of Naruto.

“Sasuke,” Sakura said, worried now that both of her teammates had been hit.

Sasuke couldn’t believe it. He hadn’t seen him move fast enough to get around his guard. It had to be some type of ninjutsu. And that kick, it had been so hard, it had to be enhanced by chakra in some way.

Naruto, recovering from his own hit, felt a little bit of satisfaction. So, it wasn’t just him that couldn’t handle the dude; even Sasuke was struggling.

“We should stop this,” Hinata said, low enough for only Shino and Kiba to hear, worried that this would get out of control. And if she was being honest with herself, worried about being around Neji, who hadn’t given her a second glance since his original passover.

“Nah,” Kiba whispered back, “Think of it as scoping out our competition.”

“I have to concur with Kiba on this one,” Shino said, his interest peaked by the fight.

Beside them, Chouji leaned over to Shikamaru, “Shouldn’t we do something to stop them?”

Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders, “It’d be too much work to stop them.”

“I don’t care what that guy says,” Ino said, “Sasuke’s gonna beat his ass.”

Ten-Ten and Neji made no moves to stop their teammate. They knew how Rock Lee was when he set his mind to something. Might as well let him get it out of his system.

The Sand ninjas looked on curiously; it was certainly proving what they already thought that the Leaf Village, that it really didn’t have that much to show off.

Sasuke pulled himself back up, “Just gives me an opportunity to use this.”

And as Sasuke looked up, his eyes turned bright red, swirling black orbs in the center. Sakura and Naruto suddenly remembered the last time they had seen Sasuke’s eyes that way, that day on the half-built bridge, when everything had happened. The others, who had never seen these eyes, and only had vague ideas of what being a Uchiha meant (remember, the Leaf Village likes to keep its secrets secret, especially from their youngest members) were surprised to see them. Neji perked up, curious about what this other powerful dojutsu could do.

“As expected, a good challenger comes after his opponent in full force,” Lee said, ready to see what would happen next.

“Genjutsu or ninjutsu, I’ll be able to see it now,” Sasuke said coldly, loud enough only for Lee to hear. Lee smiled to himself at that. It only annoyed Sasuke more.

Sasuke barreled at Lee, looking for the ninjutsu or genjutsu that gave him that power, but he only saw Lee, not jutsu behind it. And then Sasuke was flying up, a sharp hit burning at his jaw. Lee had hit him again, and he hadn’t even seen it. Sasuke landed heavily but got up as quickly as he could, not believing what just happened.

Ten-Ten and Neji smiled at each other and then back at Rock Lee. They knew what would come next, and it was their favorite part of having Lee as a teammate.

“I don’t use genjutsu or ninjutsu,” Lee said in a matter of fact way, “It is merely taijutsu.”

Sasuke was pissed, couldn’t believe what he heard, and rushed at Lee again. Lee dodged him easily and then hit Sasuke in the chest. They were full on fighting now, moving around each other. Lee kept dodging Sasuke, and even with his Sharigan activated, he could hardly see the guy move. And Lee kept hitting Sasuke in what seemed like the barest of efforts. And as he did, Lee spoke, explaining, in direct and simple ways, the way that Sasuke’s Sharigan worked, as if Sasuke needed to hear it. As if everyone else, who had formed a small worried and tense circle around their fight, needed to know.

“The Sharigan is equipped to identify and mimic genjutsu and ninjutsu,” Lee said as he spun away from Sasuke’s latest attempt to hit him. “And while it can identify taijutsu, the simple fact is, even your enhanced eyes are not match for my speed and skill.”

“There are two types of strong ninjas Sasuke Uchiha,” Lee said, as he landed another hit, “Ninjas who are born with strong abilities, and ninjas who have to work for their strong abilities. You were merely born with your abilities, I worked for mine.”

“Unbelievable!” Sasuke yelled, tired of getting lectured by this idiot. He built up chakra, ready to send a fireball his way, closed quarters be damned. Lee readied himself, taking a strong stance.

But then there was a puff of smoke, and sharp hands landed on both Sasuke and Lee, stopping them. In front of Lee stood a man that looked surprisingly like him – same green jumpsuit and bright orange legwarmers, same bushy black brows and shiny bowl haircut. In front of Sasuke stood Kakashi, looking bored by the situation.

“Let’s get out of here,” Gaara said darkly, turning away from the crowd. His siblings followed suit and they disappeared down the hall.

“So, you’re just gonna waste all your energy up front, huh?” Kakashi said, throwing Sasuke’s hand down. Sasuke’s eyes faded back to black and he sighed, annoyed by the interruption. Sakura and Naruto perked up, glad to see Kakashi before it went any further.

“And you guys were just going to let this whole fight happen,” Asuma said at the same time, appearing suddenly behind his own students. Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino were startled by his sudden appearance and let out nervous chuckles.

“Did all of you enjoy the show?” Kurenai asked from behind Kiba, Hinata, and Shino too, looking at them with disappointment.

“I told you guys,” Hinata said softly, her cheeks reddening.

“It was Shino’s idea,” Kiba said sheepishly. Shino shook his head at Kurenai.

But with Rock Lee, it was a different story. The man who had stopped him, who looked just like him, was yelling and crying.

“Rock Lee, how could you?” his said, his voice boisterous, down on one knee, tears spilling over his eyes.

“Instructor Guy!” Lee said, his voice full of emotion, eyes brimming up to, “I’m so sorry!”

And then, Lee threw his arms around his instructor, both of them crying and clinging to one another. Everyone else watched the performances, weirded out by the absolute drama of it all. Ten-Ten and Neji buried their hands in their eyes, so tired of seeing this all the time.

After a moment of hugging, Guy stood up and put his arms on Lee’s shoulders, “It’s okay Lee. Mistakes come with youth. Don’t worry about it.”

“You’re so kind Instructor Guy,” Lee said, wiping his tears away.

“In the spirit of youth, let’s take twenty laps around the building before you need to return for the exams. We have ten minutes,” Guy said, pointing off in the distance, for no apparent reason.

“Yes Instructor!” Lee yelled and they both ran at the door, presumably to take those laps.

Everyone watched as they went. As soon as they were out the door, Naruto, who had been holding back his laughter the whole time, suddenly burst forth, big peals of it falling out of him. Sasuke rolled his eyes at him, still sore from his fight, not believing he lost to a guy like that. But Sakura couldn’t help it, it had been so over the top. She found herself giggling along with Naruto. Hinata, infected by Naruto’s laugh, let out her own small tinkling laugh. Kiba chuckled too. Shino shook his head, the almost slight pull of a smile on his face. Chouji let out a big boisterous laugh and Ino cackled. Shikamaru let out his own small chuckle. Asuma, Kurenai, and Kakashi couldn’t help it, the absolutely delight their students had found in seeing Guy in action for the first time bubbled their own laughter up.

Ten-Ten and Neji sighed, used to this laughter.

It was Kakashi to who stopped laughing first and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, “I’m not the best at keeping track of time, but he was right, your exam starts in ten minutes.”

Their laughter died off in ease, each of them realizing how much time had passed.

“What are you even doing here anyway?” Naruto asked, looking at Kakashi and the other two people, who he assumed were important in some way.

“We got a call that said you saw through the illusion and were turning in your papers,” Kakashi said, looking at his three students, remembering how Kotetsu and Izumo described his team as brave and smart.

“We thought we would come see you off,” Kurenai said, turning to her team. As she did, Hinata glanced back at the ninja standing near Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji, whose face she recognized. She looked back at Kurenai with slightly raised brows. Kurenai rolled her eyes playfully at Hinata, a sly smile on her face.

“Making sure to say our goodbyes,” Asuma said as he looked at his team, the double meaning apparent to him and the other two instructors, but not quite to the students, who hadn’t yet realized that this might be the last time they see their instructors, that the moment they began their exams was the moment they put their lives on the line.

“You’re going to do good, all of you,” Kakashi said.

“You’re all a lot stronger than you think you are,” Kurenai added.

“Show them what the rookies are made of, huh?” Asuma said.

The Rookie Nine looked at their instructors and at each other, a little embarrassed and scared, for their instructors to be so open and emotional and supportive in front of everyone. But happy, really, that they had come to see them off. Each team made their own goodbyes and turned off, heading off down the halls.

As the rookies disappeared, Lee and Guy came rushing through the door, Lee stopping in front of Ten-Ten and Neji and Guy stopping with the other instructors.

“Team!” Guy called. They all turned their attention to them, Lee the most rapt, “Make me proud.”

“Yes Instructor,” they all said, and turned, following the other genin down the hall.

Asuma, Kurenai, Kakashi, and Guy watched them go, listened as the silence of the hallways filled their heads and hearts, knowing that just up the hallway, just beyond the doors, their students were starting the exam that could change their lives.

“I think they’re gonna be okay,” Asuma said after a moment, breaking the silence.

Kurenai smiled, “I think it’s good that we got them laughing, one last moment of pure joy, you know?”

Guy looked between his friends, “Laughing at what?”

They all chuckled at that. Kakashi threw his hand on Guy’s shoulders, “Come on old friend, let’s find a challenge to distract ourselves. I know neither of us will rest until we know they’re safe.”

“I’m down to watch whatever that challenge is,” Kurenai said.

“Oh, I’m down to place bets on it,” Asuma added with a grin.

The jounin turned, walking out the door, leaving their students behind as if it were simple, as if it wasn’t the hardest thing that they had to do in a long, long time.

* * *

Beyond, around, within, and everywhere all at once, Fate and Chance and Time and Space and Death and Life were weaving furiously, pushing forth the storied threads to all their set places. It takes so much for reality to happen, constant never-ending work to keep the universe in motion.

But this work was harder, the work of events so big, with so many lives overlapping. The realities of all 153 participants, held and pulled taught, ready for the motion that propelled them forward. Death held his strands ready, so much of him would be woven, with blood and agony and hardship, over the coming weeks. Life already knew the losses, calculated how long it would take to replace them all. Time and Space wove themselves tightly within Fate’s thick network, knowing they that couldn’t have any meddling hands, Kira’s hands specifically, messing this up. And Fate and Chance, they had so much to do. Fate played with the strands around Sasuke Uchiha’s neck, knowing the marks to be made there. She dug herself into Temari’s heart, willing the girl’s dark plans on. She poked at the demon inside of Gaara, making him eager, ready and hungry. Meanwhile, Chance braided together Neji and Hinata’s strands, giving cousins an opportunity to meet again. He pushed at Shikamaru’s willingness to do the work, to make this exam worth it. And finally, he laid the groundwork for a long-lost student to meet his old teacher.

And both of them worked fast and steadily, equal parts Chance and Fate, at the strands of Naruto Uzumaki’s future. At everything this exam would give him, at everything he could and would be.

The weaving was ready, it’s time for us to read its story.


	13. (Between) A Problem Child

Sometimes, a story has to be told a little out of order to make sense. Sometimes, you need to know about what happened _Between_ to get to _Here_. And other times, we just need a break, a moment to look back, to build the foundations for something much bigger.

Kushina Uzumaki doesn’t remember much from her childhood in the Village of Whirling Tides. She remembers the fallen buildings and sprawling river, the ruins that she was told were once a great ninja village. She remembers adults, none of them ever her parents, no, Kushina didn’t know her parents, telling her she was a problem child. That she was too loud, too wily, too hard-headed for someone so young. She remembers being scared, she remembers being lonely, she remembers all the hurt and broken parts of growing up in a decimated place, in a village that was made up of scraps of human life, not community, with no one giving a second thought to the problem child except to scold her.

And Kushina remembers the day that they told her, “You have special chakra.”

An announcement that meant she would be leaving her home, sent across the waters and to a village that still held power. Sent for a mission she did not yet understand, but one, apparently, that she had been born for.

Kushina Uzumaki was going to the Hidden Leaf Village, and this is when her life began. This was when her memories became more than hazy painful dreams, this is when they became tangible, real, and all her own.

* * *

First, she met Mito. An old woman, older than anyone Kushina had ever seen, with thin papery skin and long dark red hair, streaked with strands of gray. Her eyes were hazy and small. The ninjas who had brought Kushina here had told her all sorts of things about this woman, things to remember. That her eyes were that hazy because she had cataracts, that she couldn’t see very well, that she couldn’t hear very well, that she couldn’t move very well. That was nearly 100 years old and had put her body through a lot for the Leaf Village. That Kushina should be kind to her, that she was an honorable woman.

And yes, while Mito looked old, all the descriptions didn’t really capture her. As soon as Kushina walked in, Mito got up and reached out a hand.

“I’m so happy to see you Kushina,” Mito said, her voice somehow frail but strong at the same time. Kushina felt a warmth bubbling in her chest, a sudden flitting energy jolting through her. There was something about this old woman, something that felt deeply familiar and right. Kushina grabbed her hand and the feeling multiplied tenfold, the sense that she knew this woman, deep down. That somewhere buried deep inside of them was a strand of connection so strong that it could never be broken.

But Kushina was still so young, and she had just come from a place of ruins. She didn’t trust the feeling, sensed an edge of darkness in it. She pulled her hand back quickly.

“Hi,” Kushina said, still unsure why she was here.

Mito looked at the two ninjas who brought Kushina in, “You two can leave us now. We’ll have a lot to talk about.”

“Yes, Lady Uzumaki,” the two ninjas said and left the room.

Kushina’s heart sped up, “Uzumaki?”

Mito smiled, “Yes, I’m an Uzumaki, just like you. I might be your great-great aunt, or a distant cousin. It’s quite hard to remember, with so many of our clan scattered to the winds and my first home destroyed. It makes keeping track of family kind of hard, doesn’t it?”

Kushina thought darkly about the family she had never had, about a Mom or a Dad or siblings that never seemed to be there. For all Kushina knew, they never existed, she had just come into being, an orphan thrown into a ruined life.

Kushina nodded. She wanted to say something, to start asking why she was here, demanding some answers. But she knew that behavior was why she was the problem child, and somehow, she felt, she would get all the answers. She just had to impress this lady first.

“Well, since we’re both Uzumakis we might as well consider each other family while you’re here,” Mito suggested, “Would you like that?”

Kushina felt another rush of feeling, the warmth of before and a sticky happiness jumping through her bones. Family, she could have family here, with this woman, if she was good enough.

“I’d like that,” she said softly.

“Well, I’m sure you have a lot of questions?” Mito asked.

“Yes!” Kushina said, her eagerness spilling out of her, almost a shout. Her cheeks flushed, embarrassed by how loud she was.

Mito chuckled, “Well that’s exactly the type of curiosity I’m looking for.”

Kushina softened then, let out a small smile. No one had ever complimented her for her curiosity before.

“Well, I’m not as fast as I once was, Kushina. But if you’d let me take you on a slow tour around the Village, I can probably answer some of those questions,” Mito said.

And the tour was slow as Mito had promised. She walked with a cane, and sometimes, needed Kushina’s help when they encountered stairs. Each time, Kushina offered the weight of her own hand and each time, Kushina felt the return of the warmth, ricocheting back and forth like a taut strand between them, the subtle darkness putting her on edge.

But somehow, she managed to relax. There was something about Mito’s presence, so gentle and pristine. And the stories Mito told as they walked, they helped too. Mito told Kushina that The Leaf Village was almost seventy-five years old, that she had lived here from the very start, had moved from the same place the Kushina used to live in, which now called itself the Village of Whirling Tides. Mito told Kushina about how the village started off with just a few official buildings, a few family dwellings, and one ramen shop.

“The ramen shop is still there,” Mito said. “Though the first owner has passed, like so many others. His son, Teuchi, does a good job though. You should try it sometime.”

Kushina nodded, loving the idea of a hot bowl of ramen.

“That’s all we had then, but look at the village now, it’s more than the founders ever imagined it to be,” Mito said, gesturing at it all.

It was true, too, though Kushina didn’t know how true. Instead, she was witnessing what she had never witnessed before. A village that was actually a village, so vast that she couldn’t even see the edges of town, the gates that surrounded the whole place. It was almost sensory overload for the girl. She had never seen so much in one place.

Mito told her more, about the ninja systems that were invented here that the whole world copied. About the training academy and the team systems designed to help ninjas look out for each other. About the Leaf Village as a place of protection and safety and support. It sounded unreal to Kushina. They spent the day like this, Mito sharing stories and answering Kushina’s follow up questions. Not once did Kushina feel like a burden, not once did Mito make her feel unwanted.

They were returning to the building they had originally come from when Mito said, “I’m afraid I’ve only given you the highlights, but my body can’t handle much more touring.”

If those were the highlights, Kushina couldn’t imagine what more there was. It was already so much more than the grim life she knew before.

“But you’ll have plenty of time to explore the rest of it before too long,” Mito said, entering the building, which Kushina now realized was a home, with a living room and kitchen and bedrooms and hallways, all of it. She followed Mito onto the patio.

“But before the tour is officially done, I want to show you my favorite part,” Mito said. She gestured above them at the high stone mountains that protected the northern edges of the village. Along a cliffside were a set of carved faces, three solemn men.

“We call this Hokage Rock,” Mito explained, “It’s a reminder to all citizens of the Leaf Village, ninja and non-ninja alike, that the Hokage will always be watching over them, protecting them.”

“The first one,” Mito gestured to the farthest and most worn looking face on the rock. A stone man with slick hair and deep-set eyes. Kushina’s eyes followed Mito’s fingers, “His name was Hashirama Senju. He was my husband, co-founder of the Leaf Village, and our First Hokage.”

“Was?” Kushina asked, curious.

Mito looked solemn, “I’ve lived a long life Kushina, longer than almost any ninja gets. My husband, my friends, and almost everyone I’ve known is no longer alive. This is something you accept when you get older.”

Kushina swallowed, could barely imagine herself as old as Mito.

“The second face is Tobirama Senju, my brother-in-law, and Hashirama’s little brother,” Mito said, with a gentle smile, “He was very different from Hashirama, but a great leader nonetheless.”

“Was he the other co-founder?” Kushina asked, curious about the second stern face on the mountain.

“You’re a really good listener, aren’t you?”

Kushina nodded.

“No,” Mito said, her voice a little tense and very sad, “The other co-founder of the Leaf Village was someone else. Someone you don’t need to know about yet.”

Kushina somehow sensed the shift in Mito, so different than the sincere and kind attitude of the rest of the day. It was obviously the wrong question, and she wanted to ask a better one, one that made Mito feel better.

“What about the third man?” Kushina asked, pointing at the third face, whose pointed hair stuck up everywhere.

Mito smiled, “That’s our Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. He’s still here, still our Hokage. I should introduce you sometime.”

Kushina smiled but was a little confused. She was smart enough to figure out that Hokage meant some type of leader, but not more than that.

“What does the Hokage do?”

“Hmm, I sometimes forget that not everyone knows, that the ninja world does have corners that the Leaf Village doesn’t touch,” Mito said, lightly laughing at herself.

“The Hokage is the leader of the Leaf Village. But being a leader means a lot here. It means being one of the strongest ninjas, being about to protect the Leaf Village no matter the costs. It means caring about the people beyond just protecting them, about their needs and wants and the systems that meet those needs and wants. It’s about having the Will of Fire, and teaching others to have it too.”

Mito explained all of this with a sense of pride in her voice, staring at the faces in the mountain with great affection. Something stirred in Kushina, something pushing her forward, something that made her feel like she was always meant to ask this question.

“What’s the Will of Fire?”

Mito looked at the girl, so young and curious. Her successor, only she didn’t know that yet. Mito knew she needed to tell her, to make her understand. For people like them, the Will of Fire is different than everyone else.

“Well, that’s hard to explain,” Mito said with a sigh, “At least for me, and for you too.”

Kushina was confused, didn’t understand why all the answers had been simple but this one so complicated.

“Another important job of the Hokage is to keep the village secrets. The Leaf Village has a lot of secrets. Necessary secrets, for protection. I’m the biggest secret in the Leaf Village, and soon, you will be too,” Mito explained.

“I’m confused.”

“I know, and a lot of it is confusing,” Mito said, “But you really only need to know the basics, right now.”

Kushina felt a sense of dread creeping into her. She was unsure of where it was coming from. But she knew, somehow, that what Mito said next would change everything.

“A long time ago, for reasons very few ninjas understand, there were great beasts that roamed the world. We called them tailed beasts; there were nine of them. These beasts caused a lot of havoc, but someone found a way to contain them, to control them. A person could host the beast inside of themselves, contain all the chakra so that others could be protected, so that the beast are sealed in, instead of free to create chaos.”

As Mito spoke, Kushina felt the dread growing, the tangle of it falling heavy in her gut and pushing her heart to race.

“The people are still themselves, as long as the seal contains the beast, the jinchuriki, that’s what we call the people who host them, are themselves. They are not the beast. That’s important to know, I want you to know that.”

Kushina nodded shakily.

“It’s a great sacrifice, to be a jinchuriki. And it takes great strength, something that can sometimes be helped along with by special chakra.”

Kushina sucked in a breath. That’s what they had told her, the entire reason they had brought her on this journey. She didn’t quite have it worked out yet but could already feel a harsh drop in her stomach, when Mito said…

“I’m a jinchuriki for the Nine-Tailed Fox. And after I die, you will become the next host, you will become the next jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox.”

Kushina didn’t know what to do with this information, she could only react to the sudden dread that was falling over, a bone-deep fear that these beasts Mito describing were more than she could imagine them to be, that to hold one within her body would be harder than she could ever imagine, that it was something she could never do. She was just a problem child, annoying and loud and headstrong. She couldn’t do something like that, she couldn’t be a jinchuriki.

“But I don’t want to have a beast inside of me,” Kushina said, her voice shaky, “I want to be me.”

Mito grabbed Kushina’s hand, “But remember, I told you, being a jinchuriki does not make you a beast.”

“Does it have to be me?”

“It doesn’t, not necessarily. But a jinchuriki has to be strong, they have to the chakra capable of holding the seal in place. I suppose anyone could do it, but there are only a few of us who are fated to do it well. You’re special Kushina. I could sense you, knew about your chakra before I even met you. There’s something connecting us Kushina, something that tells me you are mean to be the next jinchuriki.”

And somehow, Kushina knew what Mito was talking about. Realized then that she had sensed Mito too, that the way Mito described it, that feeling of warmth and connection and darkness that Kushina had been feeling all day – it was this.

“Will is be scary?” Kushina asked, her voice still shaky.

“Maybe it will be,” Mito said, “But I know that you’re strong enough to take it. You know it too, don’t you?”

Kushina nodded, reluctantly. She did know it, the feeling deep inside of her was saying. Even if she was too young to fully understand or articulate, from the moment she saw Mito, before she even knew her purpose here, she knew was strong enough to be a jinchuriki.

“That’s the reason why the will of fire is complicated for people like us,” Mito explained. “For normal ninjas, the will of fire means having strength of character and will power. It means never giving up and doing whatever you can to protect and serve the village.”

“But of jinchuriki, the will of fire means more than that. It means protecting and serving the village on a larger level than anyone could ever imagine. It means having more strength than anyone will ever know.”

“Our Hokages are the embodiment of the will of fire, the public face that everyone turns to for strength,” Mito said, looking at the stone faces again, pride and sadness both mixed in her voice, “But jinchuriki are too.”

As Mito spoke, Kushina felt those same strands that were pushing her before suddenly fall into place. Kushina knew she had the will of fire in her, so sure of something she hadn’t even heard of before. But not she felt in her veins, the rush of this acceptance of fate, a sudden tilting into her place of purpose. Kushina knew she was meant to be here, to be a jinchuriki, to have the will of fire.

She looked up at the Hokage’s face, and knew it meant something more too.

* * *

Kushina couldn’t stop thinking about the Hokages, about what it would mean to protect the whole village, to be the strongest ninja they had. Mito had looked so proud when she spoke about them. Kushina hadn’t realized it yet, too young to recognize her own desire so deeply. But she wanted someone to look at her with that pride in that expression, she wanted a lot of people to look at her like that. All she had ever known were looks of disdain, for the hyperactive orphan, the village troublemaker, the problem child that just didn’t go away. Kushina didn’t want that anymore. She wanted to be someone worth being proud of.

And being a Hokage, it seemed like a good way to do it. She would do the duty of being a jinchurki, when the time came. She wanted to have that will of fire that Mito described; she wanted to use it to become Hokage.

Every day, Kushina grew closer to Mito, who told her more and more stories about her life and the Leaf Village and anything Kushina was curious to know, about the village or the Hokages or being a jinchuriki. It was a lot, so much for a young girl to understand. Kushina was really only grasping parts here and there but trying her best to learn it all. 

Village officials gave Kushina her own apartment, a few minutes from Mito’s place. They gave her constant food and amenities, the type of comforts she could never remembered if she had had before. They let her wonder around the village, where she marveled at all the shops and restaurants and the absolute wholeness of it. Kushina had never known community before, didn’t know the feeling of safety it could provide.

But safety was not pride. Kushina wanted both, no, she wanted it all. To be strong and smart and cared for. To be impressive and talented and respected. To have everything she had ever pictured life to be but had never known it to be. 

And on the day, a few weeks after she arrived, after Mito told her she would be starting the academy, Kushina knew exactly what to say.

“My name is Kushina Uzumaki,” she said, a bright smile on her face, looking at all her new classmates, “And I’m going to be the first female Hokage.”

Kushina hadn’t said it aloud yet. This was the first time. And she knew it would be the right time. She had been so excited to come here, to learn how to be a ninja, properly. Of course, Kushina was already strong, stronger than most of the academy students in the room right now. But she hadn’t been properly trained. The Village of Whirling Tides, as broken as it was, had no official training for young ninjas. Instead, Kushina had learned in the dark alleys and hidden basement, adults grasping her and pulling her into fights and yelling at her about chakra, telling her that it was going to make her stronger, telling her that every time they hurt her, they were doing it for her own good. To learn, here, in a school, where Mito told her there would be proper teachers who would be kind and supportive, friendly classmates who were eager to learn, it would be great. Even though Kushina was entering halfway through the academy, when most of the other kids had already been classmates for two years, she didn’t care. This would be her space, the space where she first started working toward what she thought she deserved.

The room was silent after her proclamation.

“What did she say?” a boy at the front asked, clipping his eyes toward Kushina in disdain.

Kushina leveled her eyes at him, “I said I’m gonna be the first female Hokage.”

“Yeah, like a tomato-headed girl like you can do that,” the boy said with a laugh and what felt like the whole class laughed too, breaking out into giggles and pointing at her hair.

Kushina’s heart sank, her hope a sudden shrunken thing. She looked down at her feet, a sharp blush across her face. She was angry at the boy. She wanted to call him out, to pummel his whole face in, but Mito had also warned her that she probably shouldn’t let the other kids at the academy see how strong she was. ‘Don’t get too scrappy,’ Mito had said.

The boy, fancying himself the class clown, made more quips about the bright red shock of Kushina’s hair. The other children in the class egged him on, adding their own insults, and laughing along with them.

But two children weren’t laughing. A small dark-haired girl in the corner and a bright, blue-eyed, blond boy near the front. No, the boy wasn’t laughing at all. He was looking deeply at Kushina, her bright red hair, pale skin, and her dark purple-blue eyes and he was struck, his young heart suddenly pounding. And the way she had announced herself, so brave and true. Minato Namikaze was still too young to know it, but he had just developed his first crush. And, of course, his only crush.

“Okay, okay,” the teacher called, “Settle down!”

The kids fell quiet and the teacher gestured to where Kushina should sit, right beyond Minato. Kushina walked to her seat, sullen, and Minato’s bright blue eyes followed her the whole way.

The juxtaposition of their feelings struck Fate and Chance as amusing; how necessary it was to make what would come to be possible. The fractured way that they things came to be, a funny story, really. 

* * *

“It was horrible,” Kushina said, sharp tears bubbling into her eyes, as she walked through Mito’s door later that afternoon.

Mito sat up slowly, her light eyes softened, “What do you mean?” 

Kushina tried to gulp back the tears, “You made me think it would different!”

“What did they do to you?” Mito asked, sudden concern in her frail voice. She knew exactly how the Village of Whirling Tides liked to train their young ninjas, had such high hopes for the experiences Kushina would have at the academy.

Kushina slumped in front of Mito’s bed, sitting on the floor.

“They were so mean, they made fun of my hair,” Kushina said, letting the tension of it fall away, burying her head in her hands.

“Oh,” Mito said, relief in her voice even though she knew she shouldn’t be, “Did someone bully you?”

“The whole class laughed at me,” Kushina said with a nod.

Mito reached down and pulled Kushina into her arms. The young girl turned around and wrapped her arms around her, clinging to her back and arms. Kushina was so sick for affection, for a soft and gentle touch. It had surprised Mito so much, but at the same time, it didn’t surprise her at all. From the first moment that Kushina had arrived a few weeks ago, Mito had made a silent promise to herself – as long as this girl was her ward, she would give her as much affection as she needed, she would make up for all the lost, dark years she had spent in a war torn and ravaged village.

“It will be okay,” Mito said, stroking Kushina’s hair. She loved the girl’s hair, though she had to admit it was a little bit in vanity. Bright and red and thrilling, an Uzumaki trait. Mito’s hair had been that bright too, when she was young, instead of dark red-grey it had become.

“There’s always going to be bullies,” Mito said, “and there’s always going to be silly reasons why they bully people. But it’s just muck, nothing for you to mind. Don’t give them the satisfaction of getting to you.”

Kushina pulled back slightly, looked up at Mito with soft eyes, “So I’m just supposed to ignore them?”

Mito turned her head, “No, you’re a strong girl. If they attack you, I know you can take care of yourself, and I encourage it. But that’s different than name calling. They don’t get to decide what you are, what you can do.”

Kushina listened, wishing somehow that she could take Mito’s gentle grace inside of her, that she could feel this warmth all the time. Even when they picked on her, like they had all day. Even when they followed her nearly all the way home, like they had that day.

“Mito?” Kushina asked, scooting from her grip and looking at her seriously.

“Yes?”

“Do you think I could be Hokage?”

Mito blinked at that, and then smiled. She remembered the look on Kushina’s face when she had first told her the story of her husband, her brother-in-law, and introduced her to Hiruzen a few days after her arrival. The way she would sometimes catch the girl staring at her window, at the likenesses of Mito’s lost loved ones carved in stone. Kushina was enamored with the Hokages.

But to be one? Well, now that Mito was thinking about it, it would make sense. After all, there had been the secret, the deepest secret that she and Hashirama had kept, the secret no one still knew, that only Kushina would be granted, on the day Mito died. The primary junchuriki had ties with the Leaf Village Hokage from the very start, Mito had made sure of it. There was no reason that Kushina shouldn’t be Hokage.

She smiled at her ward, pride in her face, “You can be whatever you want to be, Kushina Uzumaki.”

Kushina saw the look on Mito’s face and felt a rise in her chest – pride, it was there. And Kushina hadn’t even felt like she had done anything worthy enough to earn it yet. Screw the boys who called her names. Kushina would be Hokage one day, she knew it. 

* * *

They were following her, like they always were. During her first week at the academy, they followed her after class let out. Always staying about six feet back, snickering under their breaths. Making fun of her hair, her attitude, and any other thing they could think of. A group of boys in her class, led by the first one who had made fun of her, unruly and mean only in the way that kids could be. They followed Kushina, and behind them, a soft, quiet boy, eyes cool and confident, ready to step in if anything happened.

On the first day, Kushina thought about yelling at them to buzz off. But she decided to not give them the satisfaction, to ignore the muck, like Mito had taught her. They would get tired eventually, and right now, they weren’t worth her time.

Like almost every day, Kushina was heading to Mito’s house. Usually the boys peeled away a few blocks from her place. She was turning down the alley, to get to the private entrance, when she heard them, a different mumbling than what she used to.

“Always going to that old hag’s house,” one of them said.

“Think she’s hot shit because that lady took a shine to her,” another added.

“Ain’t that the first Hokage’s wife or something?” someone asked.

“Yeah,” the first said, “But why does that matter? She’s too old to be useful now.”

Kushina paused in her steps. They could make fun of her, say anything that they wanted. But Mito was another story. In a sudden flash, Kushina felt her blood boiling, her face turning hot and red. She couldn’t believe it, what they were saying about Mito. Useless, really? If only they knew. But Kushina would show them some respect.

She turned to them, her hair and face both flashing a bright, blooming red, “What the hell do you think you’re saying!?!”

Beyond the gang of bullying boys, a shadow tensed, ready to step in. And a soft smile on his face, excited that she was willing to stand up for Mito.

The boys all looked amped, excited that she finally noticed them. Excited that they had finally found the right buttons to push.

The biggest one stepped forward, “Just that that old lady ain’t shit.”

“And that you’re nothing special, just cause she likes you so much,” another one said.

“You have no idea who Mito is!” Kushina yelled, the rage burning in her.

They were amused by this, all of them chuckling.

“Look at the tomato head, getting all riled up.”

“Screw you!” Kushina said and rushed forward, jumping on the tallest one, knocking him to the ground, her fists flying. She got a few hits in, smiling at the satisfying knock she felt under her skin. But then a pair of arms were gripping at her, the other two boys dragging her off. She yelled, trying to kick back at them, but they were too strong and rough, throwing her to the ground. And then the biggest boy was up, jumping on top of her and knocking her on the face.

Minato tensed, ready to jump in, but then someone was running past him, a small rush of long black hair and pale skin.

“Leave her alone,” a girl said, her voice more scared than fierce, appearing in front of the boys. She was small and pale, with light violet eyes and long dark black, almost purple hair. Minato recognized her – Kyada, one of the girls from their class.

“Yeah, and what are you gonna do about it?” the biggest one said, pulling back from Kushina. Underneath then, Kushina struggled as the other two held her down.

“Let me go!”

Kyada looked scared and nervous, “You shouldn’t bully people like that, it’s not nice.”

The boys laughed at that, joking about Kyada, about how weak she was. Minato tensed, still hidden. Kyada was not handling this well. In their distraction, they didn’t sense someone else joining the scene, someone bouncing through, throwing all the boys off in a quick swoop, all of three of them landing together against the fence in a harsh thud.

The fell to the ground, coughing and yelling, looking up in fear. They hadn’t even seen the person who hit them,

And older girl landed in front of Kushina and Kyada, looking bemused and confident.

“Run along boys, or I’ll really kick your ass,” she said smoothly.

The boys all looked at each other in confusion and fear. They could handle Kushina and Kyada, they thought, but there was no way they could handle this older girl, whoever she was. They scurried off, not even glancing back. The older girl smirked as they did.

She turned around to Kushina and reached out a hand. Kushina took it hesitantly and the girl pulled her up. She looked around her; she had no idea who these two girls were or where they had come from. Though the first one looked a little familiar, she had no idea who the second was.

“That will shine up really well,” the old girl said, gesturing to Kushina’s split lip. Kushina rubbed at it, still feeling the sting of the hit the boy had gotten on her. But also, the sting of her hands hitting his face, she would remember that.

“And you,” the older girl said, turning to the smaller dark-haired girl, “What’s your name?”

The girl’s cheeks blushed a deep pink and she stuttered, “Kyada, Kyada Shinohara.”

“Well Kyada,” the older girl said, in the same smooth voice, “It was a valiant effort, but you don’t rescue someone with words, you gotta do it with your fists.”

“Sorry,” Kyada said softly.

“No need to apologize, you did your best.”

“And you,” the older girl turned to Kushina now, “What’s your name?”

“Kushina Uzumaki.”

“Well you’re kinda a red-hot habanero, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean?” Kushina asked, attitude in her voice. She wasn’t fond of all these food related nicknames that people in the Leaf Village kept throwing at her.

“If it was just the one kid, I bet you could have taken him,” the older girl said, her voice softening, “It’s really cool how you stuck up for the old lady.”

Kushina let herself feel pleased at that, at this obviously strong older girl congratulating her. Maybe the habanero nickname wasn’t so bad. Certainly better than tomato-head. But she was still suspicious of this girl.

“What’s your name?”

The older girl smiled, “Mikoto. Do you two know each other?”

“We’re classmates,” Kyada said softly. Kushina realized why she seemed familiar then. She had seen this girl, hiding at the back of class.

“That’s good, that means you can stick together from now on,” Mikoto said.

Kyada glanced at Kushina, a shy smile on her face. Kushina gave her a lopsided smile back.

“But you probably need some training too, better than what they’re giving you at the academy,” Mikoto mused. “Do you know where the training grounds are?”

Kyada nodded. Kushina shook her head.

“If you meet me at training ground B, after you get out of the class tomorrow,” Mikoto suggested, “I can show you how to make those guys leave you alone for good.”

Kyada and Kushina both smiled at that, looking up at the older girl who was offering them so much generosity. Then Kushina’s smile fell.

Somehow, Kyada sensed why it did. “I can show you where the training grounds are. We can go together.”

“Great,” Mikoto said.

Then, from a balcony above, a voice called down. A boy that looked around Mikoto’s age.

“There you are,” he said, looking down on them, “Who are those kids?”

Mikoto’s cheeks flushed, and when she spoke again, her voice had lost some of its cool smoothness as before. It sounded shaky and giddy and bright all over.

“They’re not kids,” Mikoto called up to the boy. Then she turned back to Kyada and Kushina, “How old are you?”

“Ten,” both said in unison.

Mikoto frowned, “Hmm, well I guess you are kids. But don’t let that stop you from being strong.”

“Are you coming?” the boy asked, his voice more amused than annoyed.

Mikoto rolled her eyes and flushed again, “You have to forgive my teammate, he’s been incorrigible since we became chunnin.”

“I am not!” the boy called down, teasing.

Mikoto broke out into a grin. “I have to go, but don’t forget. Tomorrow, right after school, okay?”

They nodded at her and watched as she jumped up to the balcony above, her face flushing deeper and she walked into the house with the boy.

Kushina felt her adrenaline fall then, a rapid calming after the quick and tense encounter.

“Do you think she has a crush on him?” Kyada asked, curious about the older, mysterious girl who had helped them.

Kushina glanced back up at the balcony where they disappeared and shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, maybe.”

“She was just blushing a lot,” Kyada said softly.

“What,” Kushina asked, confused, “Do you have a crush on him or something?”

Kyada’s face turned a deep beet red, “No, no. It’s just…I think he’s part of the Uchiha clan, Fugaku. He’s supposed to be really strong. And his clan is the strongest clan in the village.”

Mito had been telling her a little bit about the famous clans of the Leaf Village, especially those who had kekkai genkai. She had mentioned the Uchiha, but she also mentioned another one – the Hyuga clan. Personally, Kushina thought their powers sounded a lot cooler than the Uchiha’s.

“What about the Hyuga clan?” Kushina asked, hoping Kyada would be impressed with her knowledge of the clans.

Kyada flushed, pressed her fingers together, “Well yes, they’re strong too.”

Kushina raised an eyebrow, “You voice got all gooey when you said that.”

“No…no it’d didn’t!” Kyada said, turning redder than before.

Kushina shrugged her shoulders, figured that would be a mystery to figure out later. Because, she realized, there was a warmth settling over her stomach. She hadn’t really talked to anyone besides Mito since she moved here. And in one afternoon she had made plans to hang out with an older kunoichi and had a conversation with one of her classmates. And Kyada seemed kind, if too gentle. And she had tried to stop the boys even before Mikoto showed up.

“Hey, you like ramen?”

Kyada seemed taken aback by her question, “Yeah, I love it.”

Kushina broke out into a wide, crooked grin, her eyes squinting in happiness, “Well I know a nice ramen shop owner who will probably give us free ramen on account of me getting beat up. Wanna come with me?”

“Yeah,” Kyada said with a soft smile, “I’d like that.”

The two girls walked away together, questions and talk spilling out of them as they did so. Neither of them noticed the blonde boy hiding behind the fence, who had watched the whole thing. Who had seen all the people who had come to Kushina’s aid.

Maybe he didn’t need to follow her anymore, it wasn’t his time to help her yet. He walked away with a smile, happy that she seemed to be making friends.

But it would be Minato’s turn to help Kushina, soon enough. There was so much more left to come first, Kyada and Mikoto and a hard, cold death that would leave Kushina wanting, Minato waiting to fill the space.

Fate would make sure of that.

* * *

Kushina’s life, so small and dark and blurry before she went to the Leaf Village, was opening up, bit by bit. Making space for new friends and new happiness and new ways of thinking. And if they meant having to bear the responsibility of the Nine-Tailed Fox one day, if that meant having to be a secret so important that no one could ever know, then Kushina could handle it. She’d make them all proud, be a great jinchuriki, and then a great Hokage.

She wouldn’t be a problem child anymore.


	14. (Here) A Test and a Tangle

The first thing the crowd of eager ninjas ready to compete in the Chunnin Exam learned is that sometimes, being a ninja meant dealing with paperwork. When they turned in their forms earlier, they had been sorted, into all sorts of categories. Different colors for different villages, different numbers for different teams, different symbols for whether they were rookies or not, different indications about how many times someone had tried before, and a lot of other things. Each participant was given a card, with all this information on it, and most of them had promptly stuck it away and forgotten about it in the free hour. But now it suddenly seemed important.

In the room, they were greeted by the same two chunnin who had tried to trick them with the genjutsu, who had collected their paperwork and given them their cards.

“Use your identity card to find your seat, the information will be on line 3A,” Izumo called loudly, so everyone could hear.

The whole crowd of them frantically reached for the cards, squinted at the tiny script written there and looked across the vast auditorium room, with long tables and desks arranged accordingly. Some people got it quickly and hustled to their seats. Others still seemed confused.

“And if you’re not smart enough to figure out where you need to sit,” Kotetsu said, with a smirk, “Then you’re not gonna like this portion of the exam very much.”

Everyone felt a little rushed then and shuffled around, stepping through and around each other, a mass of moving bodies. But finally, they settled. Some of them noticed the purpose of this immediately, the reason assigned seats were happening – they were being separated from their teammates.

Shikamaru let out a heavy sigh, noticing that the spot beside his was filled with the blonde Sand ninja, the girl who had barked at him for blocking the door earlier. Temari heard his sigh, noticed it was the annoying kid who had blocked her way earlier, and shot him a light glare. Shikamaru turned his eyes away from her quickly, not wanting to deal with any type of trouble right now. Sakura was sitting beside the light-eyed ninja with long hair, Neji, she thought his name was. If his other teammate, Rock Lee, was enough to best Sasuke, she couldn’t imagine what this guy was like. Neji felt Sakura sit beside him but didn’t even care enough to look up. She had been smart enough to figure out the genjutsu, but among the rookies, she wasn’t his competition. A few rows in front of him, he caught the pale skin and short black hair of his cousin and let his eyes fall; that would be another problem he’d have to deal with if it came to it. Hinata, sitting a few rows in front of him, felt as if someone’s eyes were on her, but was too nervous to turn around. It also didn’t help that she was distracted, because at the moment, Naruto was sitting beside her. A light pink tickled at her cheeks as he gave her a nervous smile. He looked around as he sat down, and realized no one he was knew was beside him, expect for Sakura a few rows back. He glanced back at Hinata, whose gaze averted as he did. At least he’d have one familiar face here.

The rest of the Rookie Nine and their recent acquaintances were set among strangers, ninjas whose faces they had only seen in passing in the hallway before. But Sasuke immediately made notes of where his teammates were, just in case. Gaara, Rock Lee, and Shino did too. TenTen, Ino, Chouji, Kankuro, and Kiba were too curious about other things, mainly about what this portion of the exam would entail, instead of noticing where teammates were sitting.

Just as everyone settled in, there was a huge puff of smoke at the front of the room, a few gasps of shock following it. As the smoke cleared, they saw a whole team of chunnin, dressed in the same clothes as Izumo and Kotetsu, gray jackets and blue Leaf Village headbands. And standing at the front of them was a tall, dark looking ninja. He wore a black jacket that covered his entire body, and a full headpiece that covered his head. Across his face were a set of long scars, cutting through his cheeks and jaw. It was terrifying.

“Alright you degenerates,” he said, his voice as deep and scary as his face. “I’m Ibiki Morino, proctor for the first portion of the Chunnin Exams.”

A noticeable tension passed through the crowd as he spoke. None of the rookies had seen a more intense looking ninja, even during the unintentionally intense missions they had gone on before. For some of them, there was something intensely familiar about him. Hinata recognized him first and felt her gut drop; he was the man from that horrible day at the academy. Ino shook her head, tried to shake the memories of that day out of her head. Sakura felt her breath catching, remembered how scared she had felt then. And each of them remembered holding each other’s hands, being there for each other in a way they never had before and hadn’t been since while a terrifying ninja warned them of all the ways the ninja world was cruel to girls.

If he was in charge of this portion of the exam, they didn’t know what to expect. And they didn’t want to imagine it either.

“Now, prior to popular belief, being a ninja isn’t all about fighting,” Ibiki continued, “Which is why the first portion of the Chunnin Exam is a written test.”

There was a mummering in the crowd, each of them reacting to the news in different ways. Naruto immediately felt his stomach drop and groaned. Fighting, he could handle, but no one had told him there would be written test on this exam.

Ibiki cleared his throat, and the mummering dispersed. He spoke again.

“There are a few rules you need to be aware of during this written test,” Ibiki said, “And I won’t answer any questions, so you better pay attention”

“The first rule is this – the test is taken on a point reduction system. Contrary to what you’ve done before, you all begin the test with a perfect score of 10 points. 1 point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong.”

“Rule number two – Teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three members.”

Again, there was mummering around the room in reaction to this news. Sakura felt a rush of frustration push through her as she glanced at Naruto a few rows ahead of her. There was no way he was going to make it through this.

“Rule number three,” Ibiki continued, “The proctors behind me will be acting as sentinels. After we have distributed the exam, they’ll be positioning themselves around the room to watch you carefully for any cheating. For every incident of cheating that they spot, they will subtract two points from the culprits’ score. Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp. And if they catch you cheating five times, your entire team will be eliminated.”

Even more reaction pushed through the crowd at this.

“Silence!” Ibiki bellowed, his deep voice filling every corner of the room. “If you want to be considered ninjas, then show us what exceptional ninjas you can be”

“And one last thing. The final question of the test will not be given until fifteen minutes before the test is over. You’ll have one hour to complete the test.”

“Now, any questions?” Ibiki finally asked.

A multitude of hands shot into the air, from all sides of the room.

Ibiki gave them a small smirk, “I said no questions. The rules have been explained. If you still don’t understand the objective, then maybe you don’t have what it takes to be a ninja.”

The hands dropped down, dejected and scared at how ruthless this proctor was being. The proctors behind him shuffled through the rows, placing a test face down in front of each genin, with two pencils and an eraser for each.

Naruto felt his heart racing and a cold sweat on his forward. He couldn’t believe the first portion of this exam was a written test.

“Naruto,” Hinata said gently, beside him.

It pulled him out of his stupor for one second; he looked at her.

“I think you’re going to do really good, you shouldn’t worry,” Hinata said. She had watched his face get less and less sure as Ibiki spoke, and she wanted to comfort him as much as she could.

Naruto shook his head. Of course, he couldn’t lose his cool here, in front of Hinata and everyone else. He couldn’t make himself look weak. He’d find some way to do well on this test. How hard could it be anyway?

“Yeah,” he said, trying not to let the nerves come out in his voice, “I guess you’re right.”

Hinata smiled at that, though she could tell he was trying to put on a brave face. And honestly, Hinata was trying to put on a brave face too. The proctor was terrifying, and while the rules made sense to her, it seemed the possible scenarios that could lead to failure outweighed those that would lead to success. But if Naruto could put on a brave face, so could she.

All around the room, the Rookie Nine and their acquaintances were feeling mixes of confidence and nerves, some of them concerned by their teammates bringing them down and others not. As the last test was passed out and the last sentinel took his place around the room, these feelings multiplied and spread to all the genin taking the exam, eager and scared and ready and unprepared and all and everything in between.

“Begin!” Ibiki shouted.

There was no time for thinking anymore, only doing.

* * *

Though they didn’t like it, everyone called them the Sand Siblings, even in their own village. And the Sand Siblings didn’t come here to play or make nice or be friends with anyone. They came here with one objective, whether they liked it or not. But it didn’t mean that they couldn’t show the other villages what Suna was made of in the meantime.

Gaara turned over the test slowly, took his time reading through the first, second, and third questions, all of them too hard for him to figure out. He suspected, quickly, that most of the questions would be the same, an impossible test. But the darkness inside of him chuckled, he wouldn’t let anything like that stop him.

The proctor had gone on about cheating, how sentinels would be on the lookout for it – because they knew cheating would happen, on a test like this. In fact, Gaara thought, that’s the very reason they designed this test, to encourage us to cheat.

Gaara lifted one of his fingers to his right eye, slowly and calmly, placed it over it as if he was frustrated, so that if any sentinel looked his way, they’d just think he was rubbing it in frustrated. It only took a little chakra, and it wasn’t something he got to do very often, summoning a third eye.

A swirl of sand appeared in his other hand and dispersed throughout the room, invisible except for himself and anyone who knew to look for it. He heard someone beyond him hiss, heard them rubbing their eyes, as the sand hit them. In the second their eyes were closed, an eyeball appeared over their test and then blinked away, disappearing in a moment.

Something deep inside of Gaara relished that moment, the hiss of pain when the sand hit someone’s eye, the knowledge that he was stealing from them so easily. Gaara released the jutsu, wrote down the answers, and looked around the room at all the visible tension and frustration, embracing the feeling of it, enjoying it.

A few rows away, Kankuro was thinking of a plan to cheat. He hadn’t even considered trying the questions first, because it seemed like the proctor was giving them permission to cheat anyway. Might as well try from the get-go.

He raised his hand, “Gotta use the bathroom.”

Ibiki shot him a harsh look. Some of the other genin in the room looked up.

“You’re not allowed,” Ibiki said, narrowing his gaze at him.

“Well,” Kankuro said, with a sheepish shrug of his shoulder, “Guess I’ll just piss myself then.”

Ibiki let out a dark sigh and nodded to one of the sentinels, “Fine.”

The chunnin closest to him slapped a pair of handcuffs on his wrist. Kankuro gave him a grin, but he seemed unphased as he pulled him out of the room and down the hall. He dragged him into a bathroom, undid the cuffs, and shoved Kankuro at the urinal.

“Are you gonna watch?” Kankuro said, aghast. It didn’t matter, really, his plan would still work either way, but he needed to keep the ruse up. 

“Just piss, kid,” the guy said sternly.

Kankuro slipped his bag off his shoulders, rolling them. The sentinel gave him a quizzical look

“What,” Kankuro said, “Gotta be limber to do the act.”

The sentinel rolled his eyes and Kankuro turned away from him, facing the urinal. He made motions with his hands, as if undoing his pants, but he didn’t really. Instead, he released barely perceptible strings, which reached toward his bag. A second later, a puppet exploded from it, rushing at the sentinel.

“Wha—” the sentinel shouted, jumping away from the puppet.

Kankuro turned around, hands moving quickly, the puppet responding in time, sending it back toward the sentinel, who dodged again and tried to send a kunai toward one of the barely-there strings. Kankuro pulled quickly, dodging the kunai and launched the puppet back, quicker than before. It landed on top of the sentinel, who yelled as the puppet knocked it him out with a swift hit.

“Sorry,” Kankuro said, “but no one gets away from Crow.”

He pulled the dude’s body toward the sink, pulled the handcuffs out of his pockets, and cuffed one of his hands to the sink. He rummaged through his other pocket, found another pair of handcuffs and used them to cuff to his other hand to another sink, so the guy was splayed out, with arms spread and trapped in either direction. Kankuro turned back to his bag and pulled out some cloth, wrapped it around the guys’ eyes and mouth. The sentinel would wake up soon, but this would at least hold him until after the exam.

He turned toward his puppet, affectionately named Crow, “Now, time for a little makeover.”

To anyone who saw Kankuro coming back into the room, it would look like the same sentinel was bringing him back. But Temari knew her brother’s puppets well enough to see the small, strange stop motions movements in the sentinel’s arms and legs. Kankuro went back to his place, and the sentinel want back to his, eyes scanning the crowd as if looking for a cheater.

But Temari knew what Kankuro was really doing, he was using Crow, in disguise, to look for the answers. And Gaara seemed to figure out the answers in some way too. From her vantage point at the back of the room, she watched as both her brothers scrawled their answers in.

She looked down at her own exam. She had made an attempt at the first two questions. The first question was difficult, but she was sure she got it right. And the second, even harder. She wasn’t as sure of her second answer. But each of the questions after was harder still, too hard for her to answer. Cheating would be the only way to pass.

Of course, Temari could think of a thousand different ways to cheat, but all of her ideas were overly complicated, liable to get her caught. In fact, she was sure that at least one of the sentinels knew what Kankuro was doing and had already marked him up at least once. And Gaara, well, she didn’t worry about him, there was no way he’d get caught.

She knew she shouldn’t be worrying about her brothers, though one of them getting eliminated meant she would be eliminated too. And they couldn’t be. They had made promises and deals, had bent to the will of the Kazekage and had a mission to accomplish. They had to make it to the final rounds.

Temari thought of the Kazekage’s cold face starting them down before they left and had to stop herself from shivering. She thought too, of the two strangers who had stopped her right before she left, everything they told her about, the life they were inviting her too. She took that paper with the address they gave her, crumpled it up, and shoved it in her backpack. Temari couldn’t think about the possibility of something more right now.

The Kazekage had his own objectives, but so did Temari. And she would make it to the final rounds no matter what. And then, maybe, after, she could think about what those two strangers had told her.

Temari decided the easiest way to cheat would be the simplest – she would copy off the guy beside her.

It was the same guy from before, who had blocked the door. He looked a little younger than her and bored by the whole situation. When they first began the exam, he, like her, pushed his way through the first few questions. It looked like he got through three before he gave up.

And then he looked around, his eyes landing on a girl a few rows ahead, long blonde hair in a ponytail. Plus, a heavy-set guy a few seats and rows over, on the left. All three caught each other’s eyes and nodded, and Temari saw the deep sense of recognition there.

They must be his teammates, and unlike her own brothers, they were probably thinking of a way to work together. Temari just had to bide her time.

As she waited, she thought about her brothers, looking in their direction again and again. They would never think to share their answers with her, even if she asked outright.

And then there was a shifting beside her, a quick shadow crossing over her eyes suddenly. Temari blinked. The kid reached down as slowly as he could, grabbing what looked like the most miniscule roll of paper, with the smallest of handwriting. He unrolled it, scanned it, and then dropped it back to the floor. Then he started writing down the answers, quickly and aggressively. When he was done, he looked toward the same two ninjas as before and they all gave each other small smiles.

Temari had gotten over feeling jealous of other people a long time ago, but if she was still one for jealousy, this would be the moment for it. Instead, now was the moment to act. Temari rolled her neck, as if she had a kink to work out. Leaning her head ever so slightly let her see the answers on the guy’s paper. She quickly memorized the answers to questions three through five and wrote them down. She shifted her head again, just as subtle as before, but noticed that this time she didn’t have to, because the kid’s paper was a few inches closer to her.

She looked over at him, and saw, underneath the desk, that he was doing some type of jutsu, and what looked like shadow pushed the test a centimeter closer to her.

Well, if he was giving her the answers, she would waste no time. Her eyes scanned the answers for the last five questions and her quick mind memorized them. She bent over her test and wrote them down.

When she was done, she looked at the guy, whose paper had shifted back in front of him. Both his arms were on top of the table, one arm holding his head up, like he was nodding off.

She pushed at his leg with hers under the desk and he shook, as he had really been nodding off, as if it hadn’t been an act. He looked toward her. She gave him a soft look, a barely-there smile, something she hoped he perceived as a thank you.

He shrugged his shoulders, turned back, and nodded off again.

Well, at lease someone can relax, she thought. She wouldn’t be able to, not until this was all over, not until finally got the revenge she planned on for so, so long.

* * *

When Neji Hyuga turned the test over, he chuckled lightly to himself. The first question was so difficult, it would be almost impossible to answer, well, at least in a timely manner. He had wondered why there had been such an emphasis on cheating when Ibiki had been describing the rules. That was exactly what they were supposed to do on this test – cheat.

The pink-haired girl beside him dove right into the exam, answering question after question, finishing the test in just a few minutes. She hadn’t seemed like much during the fight that Rock Lee had instigated, just yelling from the sidelines. But then again, she had been the one to recognize that gentjutsu earlier. She was probably a lot smarter than she seemed. But cheating off her, it would be too obvious. Besides, it wouldn’t really make use of his talents.

Neji murmured to himself and felt his Byakugan activate, his field of vision expanding nearly indefinitely. He focused his eyes on someone a few rows in front of him, who seemed to be finishing up the last question. Neji’s eyes pierced through the boy’s body, his paper and pencils and answers, all clear as day with Neji’s enhanced vision.

He wrote the answers down, checked if they made sense, and was satisfied. That was easy enough. Beside him, the pink-haired girl, Sakura, he thought her name was, seemed to seize up for a split second and then lifted her test, looking at it more closely, lightly giggling to herself.

It was the most interesting thing. His eyes were still activated, so he could see the girl’s chakra, but there was also another chakra there, briefly overlaying hers, like a shadow. It flickered, the girl snickered, then seized up again, and the overlaid chakra vanished.

The girl shook her head, as if confused and looked around the room quickly. Her eyes landed on Neji, confused and surprised by his face for a second. Neji deactivated his Byakugan, didn’t want her to suspect that he was cheating off her. But she was already turning away, glaring at a blonde girl behind her, someone who had been in the crowd during Lee’s fight. The girl didn’t acknowledge Sakura’s glare, but instead, was writing down answers with a smirk on her face.

Hmm, Neji thought, there must have been some jutsu at work there. Across the room, someone asked to go to the bathroom and Neji rolled his eyes – there was an obvious attempt at cheating if there ever was one.

He looked across the room, spotting TenTen and Lee in the same row, just a few ninjas between them. He didn’t know what they would do to cheat, but he trusted them enough to know they would do well.

At that very moment, TenTen spotted the mirrors hanging at different points across the ceiling, a few across each row. With only about thirty or so sentinels to the hundred and fifty-so participants, she knew there had to be some way they were catching cheaters beyond just their quick eyes. And maybe, if she was careful enough, she could use their tactics for catching cheaters to her advantage.

She knew it was risky, of course, but also didn’t know what else to do with a test so impossible. There was no way she could answer those questions and there was also no way she was going to let Neji and Rock Lee down. And speaking of Lee, he was just a few seats over. Maybe she could help him out too, assure that at least two out of three team members had some answers. Well, three actually, because there was no way Neji wouldn’t use his Byakugan in some clever way.

She looked at Lee, willing him to catch her eye, and surprisingly, he did. She lifted her her chin, ever so slightly, gesturing to the mirrors above. Lee followed her gesture but looked confused. She nodded toward the mirrors again. It took him a second, but he caught on, a huge grin spreading across his face. She narrowed her eyes; he didn’t have to make it so obvious. He dropped the smile in response.

In the quickest of motions, TenTen released a few strings from her hands, quick invisible things that caught hold of a few of the mirrors. Ever so slightly, she bent them, glancing up to see if they were bent enough to catch and reflect the answers of the person a row ahead. Just a little more…and there! She saw the answers from the guy sitting one row ahead of her. She quickly memorized them and released the string from that mirror.

She looked at Lee, his upward gaze a little obvious, but then he looked at her and nodded. She released the second mirror and picked her pencil, writing down the answers.

Lee wrote his answers down quickly, happy that TenTen had been so eager to help. Then again, that’s usually what happened on their team. He and TenTen worked together on something while Neji did his own thing. There was no doubt in his mind that Neji had secured the answers in his own way.

Lee smiled to himself as he wrote down the last answer, confident in his team’s ability to pass, confident that they would make Guy proud. It was Lee’s time, he could feel it, a buzzing energy rushing around inside of him.

His time to show everyone just how strong his hard work had made him.

* * *

At the back of the room, Shikamaru let out a sigh. It was so annoying to have to take a test, especially one this difficult. He didn’t think this was the type of trouble that the Chunnin Exam would entail.

But still, the questions were like puzzles. Deeply complicated and difficult puzzles that Shikamaru was eager to figure out. The first three questions weren’t easy, but he managed to get through them, as annoying as they were. But now he was stumped – he would have to cheat. And, he suspected, if he needed to cheat, Ino and Chouji definitely did too.

Of course, this would be easy for them. They had a team member who could basically read other people’s minds. Shikamaru looked forward just as Ino looked back, both of them with small smiles on their faces. A little bit to the left, Chouji caught their gaze as well, a small smile on his own face. Like always, they knew exactly when to turn to each other for help.

Shikamaru flitted his gaze a few feet in front of Ino, a quick glance at Sakura. If anyone was going to have the right answers to the test, she would, and they could use that to their advantage. Ino looked toward Sakura and then back at Chouji and Shikamaru with a devilish grin.

Ino really liked Shikamaru’s plan, or at least what she sensed was his plan. She just had to be careful enough, because she knew it would be super obvious if her mindless body suddenly slumped over. She leaned back in her chair, far enough so that it supported her body, aimed her gaze at Sakura, and made her fingers in the sign of her signature jutsu as quickly as she could.

As always, Ino felt like she was wearing a second skin when she was in someone’s body, like the new bodies didn’t quite fit right on her.

Through Sakura’s eyes, Ino looked down at her test. Of course, that brainiac would have all the answers already written down. Ino lifted Sakura’s test to get a closer look, snickering a little as she did so. Sakura really made this a piece of cake.

It only took her a few moments to memorize them, and as soon as she did, she let herself release, mind flying back into her own body. She lifted up; leaning back in her chair had worked perfectly, had made it seem like she was just nodding off.

Ino started writing the answers down, before they left her mind. While she did, she felt a dark gaze on her. Sure it was Sakura, she smiled to herself.

After she was done, slowly and carefully, she ripped off a small strip of paper at the bottom of her test and wrote all the answers in a tiny script. She rolled it up and turned back to look quickly as Shikamaru, who leveled his gaze at her with a sure expression.

A moment later, the rolled-up strip of paper moved, as if pulled by a shadow. It shot to the left, where she was sure it would land in Chouji’s hand.

Chouji saw the shadow release the strip of paper along the ground, just below his feet. As quickly as he could, he reached down and grabbed it.

He was happy that his friends were on his side, because one look at the test and he knew he couldn’t do it. But he also knew Shikamaru was smart enough to make a plan and Ino could steal the answers off anyone in the room.

Chouji unrolled the paper and wrote down the answers. When he was done, he rolled it back up and dropped it on the ground, cast a quick look to Shikamaru.

While Chouji and Ino worked with the answers, Shikamaru couldn’t help but glance at the girl by his side. She was looking around the room, her eyes first landing on the scary, dark guy with red hair and later on her other teammate, who had just returned from the bathroom. There was an expression on her face that Shikamaru couldn’t quite place, worry and sadness and anger all mixed into one. He knew in that moment that her teammates wouldn’t be helping her and felt lucky that he was part of a team that worked together. It made Shikamaru’s stomach drop, and somehow, he had empathy for the girl who had done nothing but yell and glare at him so far.

Weird, he thought, and tried to shake the feeling off.

When Chouji nodded that he was done, Shikamaru pulled the answers his way, being careful to manipulate the shadows so that none of them crossed over a sentinel. When the answers reached him, he copied them down as quickly as he could and dropped the paper back on the ground.

He leaned forward on his hands, maybe now he could get a decent nap in after that tense, sneaky work. But then he noticed something, a slight shift beside him.

Through the corner of his eye he saw that the girl was looking at his test, trying to see his answers. Shikamaru was confused that she would cheat so obviously. But then again, maybe the obvious ways of cheating were the least suspicious. Maybe the sentinels were looking out for jutsus and the like. What he and his teammates did had been risky as hell, so many different ways to get caught. But stealing a quick glance at your neighbor’s paper, very little opportunity to get caught. She looked over again, and then copied down his answer to the fourth question.

Shikamaru felt a strange feeling his gut and remembered the way her face had looked earlier, the raw mix of emotion. Without thinking, he made his hands into a jutsu underneath the table, used his shadows to push the test slightly closer to her, so her gaze wouldn’t be so obvious. He looked ahead, as if he was dazing off, while he listened to her pen move quickly across her page. After a few moments, he released the jutsu, his exam pulling back into place.

He resettled into his former position, a warm feeling settling into his stomach. He wasn’t sure why he had helped her, but the impulse made him feel good. Then, he felt a small shove under the table, and he looked up. The girl was looking at him with a soft expression her face. It was so, so different than any of the expressions she had before and Shikamaru felt his heart rate pick up. He panicked for a second, shrugged his shoulders quickly and turned back, trying to ignore his racing heart.

He breathed slowly, his heart slowing down in turn, but his mind racing. He had no idea what happened, and he certainly didn’t want to think about it further. Taking a quick nap was much more important now.

Just as he felt himself calming down, a sentinel shouted across the room, “Number 127, you’re out!”

“What?” some guy up front said, panic in his voice “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been caught cheating five times, you’re eliminated,” the sentinel said harshly, “Number 125, 126 – leave with your teammate.”

The first boy and two others stood up, leaving the room with stony expressions.

“Number 91,” another sentinel shouted, “You, 90, and 92 are eliminated.”

“What, no way!” a girl shouted, standing up, “I didn’t cheat.”

“Don’t make us force you out,” the sentinel said, a dark edge in her voice.

The girl’s shoulders slumped as two boys stood up, “I’m so sorry guys.”

And it continued, the sentinels calling out different teams here and there, each of them reacting in different ways. There was no way that Shikamaru would be able to relax in all this commotion.

But then again, it was the Chunnin Exams, and maybe Shikamaru needed to stop trying to relax so much. This had been easy, but there was so much left to come for him and his teammates and the girl sitting beside him. 

* * *

A little before this happened, Akamaru climbed on top of Kiba’s head. He was a growing puppy, but he could still mostly fit there. He scanned the room, his eyes taking in answers from a few different places, and then crawled back into Kiba’s hood, leaning into his ear.

Akamaru didn’t talk like most ninja dogs, but he and Kiba had their own way of communicating. Kiba smiled as he learned the answers for the test, writing them all down. He reached behind his head and patted Akamaru.

“Good boy,” he whispered.

Kiba couldn’t believe how impossible this test was. He had stressed for a moment, but then remembered that he could use Akamaru to cheat, and it had work. No sentinel had caught him.

Kiba looked a few rows down and to the right. Hinata’s test seemed to already be filled in. Figures, as Hinata was ridiculously smart. She was probably one of the few people in the room who could answer the questions of the test without help. Probably Sakura too, maybe Shikamaru. It was only people like Kiba himself who needed to cheat.

Kiba was curious, so he glanced back at Shino, who was a few rows over. He could, just barely, see a few beetles leaving Shino’s sleeves. He was surprised to see it too, would have thought Shino would like the challenge of the test. This made Kiba smirk. He had come to respect Shino a lot, but still liked to know that Shino had to stoop as low as him.

Shino had liked the challenge, had puzzled his way through the first question and come up with an answer that he thought was satisfactory. But then he checked the time, and it had taken him nearly twenty minutes for that question alone. A quick scan of the exam told him the questions only got more difficult from there, and with the time limitation, it would be mathematically impossible to give all the questions the time they needed. He had no choice, he had to cheat.

He released a few of his beetles from his sleeve and they flew throughout the room, dancing over the tests of others. They returned a few minutes later, moving over Shino’s paper, giving him strokes to follow. He followed their directions and filled out the answers for the remaining questions. All of it took just around five minutes. He had plenty of time to make sure Kiba and Hinata got the right answers too.

But maybe he didn’t need to help them. Both of his teammates were in the rows in front of him. Kiba was currently leaning back in his seat, looking carefree. He must have already gotten the answers in some way, used Akamaru probably. And Hinata, he could see, was calmly sitting in her seat. Either she had answered all the questions herself, or she had used her Byakugan in some way. It didn’t matter because it meant all of his team had answers and wouldn’t get caught cheating.

But then Shino watched as Hinata ever so slightly pushed her test in the direction of the person beside her, risking not only herself but her whole team. Shino couldn’t believe that she was willingly going to let someone cheat off of her. But then he saw who she was helping.

Of course, Shino thought, glaring at the back of Naruto’s head.

Hinata knew she was taking a risk, had already seen Akamaru helping out Kiba and had sensed one of Shino’s beetles flying past her. She knew that she and all her teammates were secure in her answers, but she couldn’t stand to watch Naruto look like that for another second.

She had been nervous about sitting beside Naruto, nervous about Ibiki being the one in charge, and nervous about the questions, which were more difficult than she could imagine. Difficult, but still doable. A secret that only a few people knew about Hinata was that she tested exceptionally well. Within the Rookie Nine, her tests scores were second to only Sakura. Maybe she would’ve been bumped back to third if Shikamaru had ever given a damn, but regardless, Hinata was okay when it came to tests.

So, she concentrated and thought hard, and had answers to all nine questions on the test within half an hour. After she made sure Kiba and Shino had answers, she granted herself a quick look at Naruto.

He didn’t look good at all. His face was downward, and his hands were buried in his hair. He was rocking back and forth and breathing shallowly. And his exam, still in the same place it first sat, was completely empty.

It was strange for Hinata, to see Naruto so vulnerable. She was used to his bravado and confidence, and that was a lot of the reason why she was attracted to him. But this was a new side of Naruto, and one that she found herself wanting to protect, to make better.

“Naruto,” she whispered, her voice too soft and low for anyone but him to hear, “You can copy off my test.”

She pushed her test just an inch of so toward him, just enough for him to barely see it.

He looked at her, his blue eyes frazzled.

“Really?”

Hinata nodded, and smiled too, when she saw the relief washing over his face.

“Why?” he asked softly.

Hinata felt herself flush, knew she couldn’t tell him the real reason, “Well...um…I just think it will be nice, if we could move on to the next round together, all of us rookies, I mean. It’s be nice to have friends around.”

“Oh,” Naruto said, like he was a little surprised, “that’s nice.”

“Number 127, you’re out!” a sentinel shouted, shocking them both.

“What,” the boy, sitting right beside Naruto said, “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been caught cheating five times, you’re eliminated,” the sentinel spat, “Number 125, 126 – leave with your teammate.”

The boy beside Naruto looked like he was about to scream, but left the room quietly, two other ninjas following him. Naruto and Hinata watched them go, both with fear in their eyes. The ninja team was barely out of the room, when another sentinel called on another team, and they were booted out too.

Naruto looked at Hinata, a strange look on his face. He was trying to be confident, she could tell, but he also looked kind of scared.

“I don’t think I need to cheat off of you Hinata,” he whispered, pulling out a brave smile, “I can figure this out.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Naruto said softly, “Besides, I don’t want you to risk yourself just for me. I’ll handle this test.”

With that, he turned away, looking down at the exam with worry in his eye. Hinata thought maybe she should offer the answers again, but her heart was fluttering from what he said. He didn’t want her getting in trouble – he cared.

And he would rather be brave and reckless, all the best part she liked about his, than risk her getting eliminated.

Hinata smiled and hoped, dearly, that Naruto would figure something out.

* * *

Back when the exam first started, Sasuke realized exactly what the point of the test was. The point was to cheat, with impossible questions like this. For a moment, Sasuke thought about a bunch of different options, different ways he could get cheat without getting caught. And then he remembered, his eyes.

Sasuke had been working his Sharigan to the point of exhaustion almost every night, cherishing the clarity and power they gave them. And after getting shown up by that green jumpsuit loser right before this, he needed something to give him a thrill.

Besides, if his Sharigan could mimic anything, then surely they could mimic hand movements. The guy a few seats in front of him seemed to have most of the answers, though the test only started a few moments before. Sasuke activated his Sharigan and watched the guy closely. He picked up his pen, and like instinct, the Sharigan started mimicking the guy’s moves, propelling Sasuke along without him even having to think.

After a few moments the test was complete, and Sasuke deactivated his eyes, knowing the bright red of them were too easy to spot. He smiled to himself, that had almost been too easy. Even if he wasn’t intelligent enough to answer the impossible questions, he was smart to cheat efficiently and quickly. It was exactly the type of skills he’d need to get through the exam, propel through the ninja ranks, and face his brother.

But then Sasuke remembered, if either one of his teammates was eliminated for cheating or got a score of zero, he would be eliminated too. He dropped into a broody glare – would Sakura and Naruto hold him back forever? He had come to admire what they could bring to the table over the six months of being his teammates, even cared about them a little, if he let himself admit it, but when it came down to it, they were just detritus on his path to Itachi.

Of course, he knew he didn’t have to worry about Sakura. She was probably one of the few people in this room who could answer all the questions with ease. Really, it was Naruto he worried about. He scanned the room, looking for him, and saw his bright blonde hair at the front of the room. Naruto was shaking back and forth and Sasuke let out a harsh sigh.

There was no way Naruto was clever enough to cheat without getting caught, and he was too far away for Sasuke to help. Sakura was too far back too, there was no way she could pass the answers along to Naruto with a sentinel spotting it. Sasuke put his hands in his head with a dark sigh and thought, come on, you idiot, find a way to make it through.

Sakura’s feelings weren’t much different. The test was hard, but had been a breeze for her, really, her mind working much faster than almost anyone else’s in the room. She knew Sasuke was smart enough to figure out he needed to cheat and clever enough to do it well, but Naruto was another story. Even this far back, she could tell that he was freaking out.

She ran her head through ways she could get him the answers. Maybe she could ask to go to the bathroom and slip the answers to him as she went out. But just as she thought of this, some other ninja, one of the ones from the Sand village, raised his hand to use the bathroom. It would look suspicious if she did it now.

Throughout the ceiling of the room, she saw mirrors. Maybe she could use those to reflect her answers to Naruto in some way. No, he was too far away, and besides, the mirrors were probably exactly how the sentinels were catching so much cheating.

She sighed. It’s not like she had any dojutsu she could use to help Naruto. Or any special family jutsus or animal companions to help her out. All of her former classmates had assists that could easily help them out in cheating on this exam, but her and Naruto, they were really nothing special.

But then she remembered the day on the bridge, the flash of fire-red chakra, the thing that she knew lived in Naruto. She shook her head off, knew that would be no help. She also reminded herself that she was special, smart enough to figure out the answers without cheating.

All of these thoughts and more were running through Sakura’s head when everything went black, her mind suddenly empty. A few moments later, she came to, everything rushing to her again as if she had been drowning and was suddenly pulled above water. It was jarring as hell. She looked around frantically, no idea what just happened. The guy beside her, the one who had called out Sasuke, had strange eyes, just like Hinata’s Byakugan. He deactivated them as Sakura looked at him, but no, Byakugan couldn’t be responsible for that.

And then out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Ino behind her, smirking as she frantically wrote down answers on her exam. Sakura glared in her direction, realizing what happened. She couldn’t believe Ino did that, took over her mind like that. It was enough to make her forget all about helping out Naruto.

Naruto certainly needed the help. He had never been good at written tests. It was amazing he got through the academy with how many that he failed. And he couldn’t believe the first portion of the Chunnin Exam involved a written test. It would absolutely suck if he got eliminated here and he couldn’t show his stuff in the later portions of the exam, which he hoped involved fighting. And if he got eliminated, man, Sakura and Sasuke would kill him for ruining their chances.

Maybe it wasn’t so bad, maybe he could get at least a few questions right, or at least half right, and pass through his teammates’ combined score. Sakura and Sasuke were likely to get perfect scores. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Naruto thought, I can do that.

But when turned over the test, he could barely understand the first question. He read through it once, twice, and a third time and he wasn’t even sure what the question was asking, letting alone if he could figure it out. But no sweat, they probably made the first question hard to throw people off. Naruto moved unto the second question, and this one…it was even harder to understand than the first, with terms and ideas he had never even heard of.

Naruto felt his heart racing. This couldn’t be the whole exam, could it?

Of course, just like everyone else in the room, Naruto was learning it was an impossible test to take. And while others figured out quickly enough that they needed to cheat, Naruto couldn’t imagine the possibility of cheating.

There were so many ways he could get caught. There were 30 sentinels around the room and that scary guy upfront. And he noticed, when he walked in earlier, rows and rows of mirrors across the ceiling, even more ways to get caught. If he got caught five times, he would be eliminated. But there were nine questions, he couldn’t possibly look at someone’s answers and memorize all nine answers in seconds, he’d need to cheat multiple times.

Instead of thinking of ways to cheat, Naruto just panicked, running his heads in his head in frustration. So many people were counting on him. Sasuke and Sakura most of all, but also Instructor Kakashi and Iruka. Plus, all the other rookies, who he had been showing off to before. Why did he always have to talk such a big game?

But dammit, he was Naruto Uzumaki. He wasn’t going to let a single written test get to him. He would do this, he would.

Across the room, one of the scary guys from the Sand Village earlier was leaving. Naruto watched him go and then looked across the room, trying to see if he could catch anyone cheating. Maybe if he saw how someone else cheated, he could cheat that way himself. But if Naruto caught that person cheating, then a sentinel definitely would, so that wasn’t a good way to cheat. Besides, Naruto couldn’t see anyone obviously cheating, everyone was writing down answers, as if these questions where no problem.

Naruto let out a dark sigh. He looked to his left and right. The guy to the right of him, from the Stone Village it looked like, was only halfway through his test. To his left, Hinata was just finishing up her last question. Of course, she had no problem with it, he thought, he remembered her always having high scores during written tests in the academy. But they were sat just far away enough that Naruto couldn’t see their tests with sidelong glances. And the row in front of him was too far away too.

Naruto looked behind him, trying to spot Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura was about halfway back, but she wasn’t looking forward or writing down answers. Instead, it looked like she was glaring at Ino, a few rows behind her. Meanwhile, Sasuke was far back in the room, looking off and out the window. If neither of them was paying attention to the test, then that meant they were more than likely done – and they would probably get perfect scores too. But Naruto couldn’t have a zero, it would mean that they would all be eliminated.

He glanced at the time and realized they only had about twenty-five minutes left. More than half the time had gone by and he hadn’t even answered a single question. He buried his head in his hands again and started rocking back and forth. He couldn’t believe this.

“Naruto,” someone said, in one of the softest, lowest whispers he had ever heard, “You can copy off my test.”

He looked up, and Hinata was looking at him, concerned. His heart jumped – she would let him copy off her test! And she had all the answers too, and they were probably right.

“Really?” he asked, not quite believing it could be this easy, but noticing that she was slowly inching her paper closer to him.

Hinata nodded and gave him a small, barely-there smile. Naruto felt relief wash over him at that smile; he would be okay. But then he felt a weird pull in his gut. What if Hinata was trying to trick him, trying to get him caught cheating so his whole team would be eliminated? Hinata probably wouldn’t think of something like that herself, but Kiba and Shino probably would, and she was their teammate now.

“Why?” Naruto whispered.

Hinata’s face flushed a deep red and she looked down. She was always doing that, Naruto noticed, like she just wanted to disappear or something, “Well…um… I just think it will be nice, if we could move on to the next round together, all of us rookies, I mean. It’s be nice to have friends around.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Naruto whispered, realizing that’s exactly what he wanted too. He liked the idea of having familiar faces around, both because they would be a comfort and because he knew he would push himself more if they were around.

Hinata looked back at him, her eyes sincere. Why did he ever think someone like Hinata was trying to trick him? She was sweet and smart, and in fact, had been pretty much one of the only few people that didn’t actively make fun of him at the academy. Sure, she hardly spoke up about anything, ever, but she wasn’t the type of person who would trick him. She was just the type of person who wanted to keep the people she knew in this game. And if that meant Naruto too, well he could get behind that.

“Number 127, you’re out!” someone shouted.

Naruto jumped at the sound, the sentinel doing it only a few feet away. The boy beside him stood up and complained, claiming he didn’t cheat. But it didn’t matter, his team was kicked out.

Naruto gulped, felt his heart racing again. Someone had got caught cheating, so close to him. The sentinel on their row had a sharp eye. There was no way he could look at Hinata’s test without getting caught. Then there was another shout, and another team was eliminated, and then another. Each time, Naruto felt his heart pounding harder and harder. He couldn’t cheat, he wouldn’t do it.

He looked back at Hinata, trying to scrape up confidence. He didn’t want her to see he was scared, “I don’t think I need to cheat off of you Hinata. I can figure this out.”

“Are you sure?” she asked. There was real concern in her voice, sweet as it was. Naruto felt his gut drop. He wouldn’t just be risking himself and his team if he cheated, he’d also be risking Hinata and her team too. He couldn’t do that.

“Yeah, yeah,” Naruto said, still trying to sound confident, “Besides, I don’t want you to risk yourself just for me. I’ll handle this test.”

Hinata flushed at that again, her whole face nearly beet red. Naruto turned back to his test, trying to calm down, trying to think through this. They still had the tenth question, the one that would be given at the end. And maybe it would be harder than the rest, there had to be a reason for it being so special. But something was telling Naruto to wait, he couldn’t explain it, like a force pushing his mind forward, or something being pulled into to place.

He just had to wait for the tenth question, and he would be okay.

* * *

These tales weren’t the only ones that mattered, as there were a tiny tales playing out between every team and person throughout the room. In the corner, a grey-haired boy pushed his glasses up his nose as he answered all the questions in record time. It was good to have friends on the inside. In a few different spots across the room, the ninjas with Sound Village headbands yawned as the test went on. They knew how they game was played, knew only the final answer mattered. And yet, other struggled, resisting the urge to rip their hair out as they tried to answer the questions, shaking with nervous hands as they tried to think of ways to cheat.

Again and again, the silence was broken by the sharp call of a sentinel, “You’ve been caught cheating five times, you and all your teammates are disqualified.”

Some ninjas fought back, some walked away dejected. Still others argued that they shouldn’t get eliminated because of their teammate’s stupidity. Some shrugged their shoulders without a care, their teammates just as nonchalant. Of course, the sentinels caught the Rookie Nine and their new acquaintances cheating too, but none of them had cheated five times. 

Each of these eliminations their own tiny tale too. All of it Chance. If we could see that room with a weaver’s eyes that day, we could see a tapestry of orange, Chance at its most reckless and fun and hectic, creating and pulling and shaping so many tales in that microcosm. Except for the fifteen whose stories we know in detail, the Rookie Nine and their new acquaintances. Chance was having a field day, while Fate kept a strong hold on those, thick red strands of unchanging reality, bounding the fifteen together, through this exam process. The test was only the beginning of how tightly they would be bound, for the rest of their lives, really.

More and more and more strands of Chance appeared, and more and more teams were eliminated. The once crowded room was only two thirds full when Ibiki announced.

“It’s time for the final question.”

* * *

Everyone paused and looked up. Some of them were relieved, some of them were tense, all of them were terrified for what would come next.

“Before I ask you the final question, there’s a few more rules you need to know about,” Ibiki said coldly. “These rules are unique to the tenth question. Listen carefully and try not to let them frighten you.”

There was an audible groan in the crowd. They couldn’t imagine how much scarier a new set of rules would make this test.

“Rule number one,” Ibiki said, “Each of you may choose not to be given the final question. It’s your decision.”

“But, if you choose not to try the tenth question, you will not receive points for the other questions you answered. You’ll get a zero. In other words, you fail. And that means, of course, that both your teammates fail as well.”

A mummer of uncertainty and shock moved throughout the room.

Ibiki let out that same dark smirk as before, “Not so fast, you didn’t let me finish.”

“If you do accept the question and you do not answer correctly, you will not only fail, you will be barred from ever taking the Chunnin Exam ever again.”

This announcement created the most audible reaction yet, between anger and fear and uncertainty. Some of the genin yelled about it being bullshit, other sank into themselves. The room rumbled with energy and motion, so much of the tension within the last hour dispersing and running wild.

And through the murmur came a deep and hearty laugh from Ibiki. His laugh echoed across the room, casting pockets of quiet wherever it landed, until the whole room was quiet.

“Now then, if you’re done whining,” he said, his laugh puttering off, “The tenth and final question. Those who don’t want to take it, raise your hands.”

There was a tense moment in the room, where nearly everyone could feel the motion of his question passing through the air. And then, someone in the back raised their hand slowly.

“I’m sorry guys,” the boy said, looking at the opposite corners of the room where his teammate sat, “I just can’t risk it.”

He and three others moved slowly out of the room and as they did, other hands shot up with defeat.

“I’m out.”

“Me too.”

“I’m not staying for this.”

“I’ll retake it later.”

More and more teams left, flooding their way through the small doors until the room was almost half empty. The exams had begun with 51 teams, 153 participants. Now only 26 teams, 78 participants remained.

And then, Naruto’s hand shot up into the air.

The Rookie Nine’s eyes followed his hand and many of them thought, ‘Of course, it would be Naruto who would give up.’

But then Naruto slammed his hand on the desk, startling Hinata and the other ninjas around him.

“Don’t underestimate me!” Naruto yelled, “I don’t quit, and I don’t run!”

“You can act tough all you want, but you don’t scare me away. I don’t care if I do get stuck as a genin the rest of my life. I’ll still be Hokage someday!”

Ibiki looked unimpressed by Naruto’s outburst, “Hmmph”

The ninjas who didn’t know Naruto were surprised by this, hadn’t seen anyone with that much spirit before. They were annoyed and impressed in equal measures.

Kankuro let out a light chuckle. It was the same kid who had been such an annoyance before, of course he’d make this in some type of display. Temari shook her head, couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to constantly draw that much attention to themselves. Gaara barely registered Naruto but glanced at the places Kankuro and Temari sat. They caught his eyes and fell into a serious expression. They had a much different mission, one bigger than the Chunnin Exams. Giving up was not an option.

Rock Lee looked at Naruto curiously. He hadn’t been much in the fight earlier, but Lee couldn’t help to admire his fighting spirit. It was the type of youthful energy Instructor Guy would be proud of. And if this Naruto wasn’t going to quit, Lee wouldn’t either. TenTen was curious about Naruto, who sure was loud for such a shrimpy guy. There was no way she was backing out now if he wasn’t. Neji rolled his eyes at that display, couldn’t imagine being that obnoxious. His eyes bounced to his teammates, their faces just as determined as his and they all gave each a barely perceptible nod.

For those who knew him, it was a little different.

Hinata let out a small smile beside Naruto, her heart racing. There was something about his energy that she admired so deeply, the sheer confidence of it. It was everything Hinata wanted for herself, what she hoped to be. If Naruto wasn’t giving up, she wouldn’t either. Kiba sighed. Naruto really was trying to always show the rest of them up. He wouldn’t let them though. Shino looked at his teammates, saw the separate but similar looks of determination on their faces. They had decided, and he would respect that, was confident that they could face what was next together.

Shikamaru almost let out a laugh. Of course, Naruto would find any chance he could get to talk about being Hokage. All these rules and questions were tiresome, but if Naruto was still moving on, Shikamaru didn’t see any reason why he couldn’t. Chouji thought Naruto was being cool, sticking up to Ibiki like that, and when he glanced back at Shikamaru, he had the same certainty in his eyes as Naruto. Ino thought Naruto was being idiotic, but there was no way she was going to lose out to a fool like him. She looked at her teammates and let out a soft smile.

Sasuke smiled to himself. Some moments, he couldn’t stand having Naruto as a teammate. And other moments, like this, he didn’t mind it so much. Naruto had guts, he had to admit that. Sakura shook her head, with a light smile on her face. Naruto was ridiculous, she thought with a small bit of pride, ridiculous, and right. She glanced over at Sasuke, a few rows over. He nodded at her, a smirk on his face. They both looked at their teammate, happy to have his energy in the room.

Naruto sat back down in his chair, his arms crossed. He was full of energy, and ready to go. The last hour had been tortuous, but he was done with it, done with that scarred-faced grump trying to freak him out. He didn’t care. He was gonna face the last question.

“This is your last chance to give up,” Ibiki said darkly.

The rookie nine, their new acquaintances, and everyone else in the room stared back at Ibiki with defiant eyes, the nervous, frantic energy from before suddenly evaporated. He looked at the kid who had shouted, recognized his eyes and attitude, Naruto Uzumaki. That kid had guts, and the ability to encourage the rest of the room. To give them the backbone they needed to stare him down like this. A product of his two, long lost old friends for sure.

Ibiki smiled, knew this would be his favorite part, “Well, I admire your determination. For those of you who are left, there’s only one thing left for me to do. And that’s for me to tell you that you’ve all passed the first exam.”

A wave of shock passed through the remaining participants.

“Wait a second,” Sakura called, “What just happened, what about the tenth question?”

Ibiki laughed and a real, genuine smile broke out on his face, “There is no tenth question, or well, the tenth question was already asked. Your decision to stay was the right answer.”

“So, you’re saying the first nine questions were useless, that we spent all this time on this for no reason?” TenTen asked.

“No, no,” Ibiki said, his mood much lighter than the tense one he had had throughout the exam. “The first nine question had an important purpose, it helped us eliminate the ninjas who couldn’t surreptitiously gather information under adverse circumstances.”

“Oh, well that clears up everything,” Kiba added, sarcasm in his voice.

“Let me explain,” Ibiki answered. “My intention was to test you not only as an individual but also as a team. That’s why the test was scored on a team basis, so that you knew everything you did or failed to do would affect your team. I wanted to see how you’d handle the pressure. The first nine questions on the test were difficult, certainly more difficult than any average genin to answer. We planted two decoys with the correct answers within the group.”

At that, two young ninjas went up in a puff of smoke, their genjutsus falling away to reveal they were adults, outfitted in the same way all the sentinels were.

“The test is designed to encourage cheating,” Ibiki went on, “It almost demanded it. Those who were caught at it failed. Better not to cheat than to cheat clumsily.”

Ibiki knew he was being dramatic now, but you didn’t get to be the head of the Torture and Interrogation force without an inclination for being over the top. Sometimes it was your best bet in making an impact. He reached up, undid the full head covering over his head.

Some genin in the crowd had audible reactions, other just looked on in horror. Hinata, Sakura, Ino, and the other female genin from the Leaf Village didn’t, they had seen it before. Again, they all thought back to when they had last seen Ibiki Morino, a day that all of them wanted to forget. Ibiki knew it wasn’t pretty, a head of burn scars and raised cuts that had never healed. Puncture wounds and pinched, purple skin. The scattered marks of just what he had endured to gain information for the Leaf Village.

“Information,” Ibiki said, “It’s the most valuable thing a ninja can gain. It can be the difference between success and failure. They’ll be times you’ll have to risk your lives to get it.”

He pulled his head covering back on, “Always bear this in mind. You sometimes have to cheat to survive, to get the information your village needs. That’s why those who weren’t good enough at it were weeded out.”

“But the final question was the main event, it gave you two choices, both difficult. It was a no-win situation, just the sort that advanced ninjas have to face every day. Being prepared to face these difficult choices is what proves you’re courageous enough and disciplined to be a chunnin. Those who choose the easy path in the face of adversity, those who would save their own necks, will never be able to call themselves ninjas, at least while I have a say in it.”

“So, congratulations, you’ve passed the first portion of the Chunnin Exams. There’s nothing left to do but to wish you luck on the rest of the exam.”

Waves of relief and frustration passed through everyone in equal measures. But they had passed, not matter what they had just experiences, they had passed.

Naruto jumped up, “Alright, we did it! One down!”

Hinata giggled at Naruto’s celebrating, while most of the other Rookie Nine rolled their eyes of it.

But then there was a crash, and everyone jumped as one of the windows burst into pieces, glass flying everywhere. Some people had to move to dodge it and everyone shot each other quick panicked looks.

Ibiki and the rest of the sentinels barely moved, just shook their heads and rolled their eyes in amusement as a woman landed at the front of the room.

She had short purple hair and brown eyes, with a bright smile on her face. She looked wily and excited, like she was ready to attack anyone who came her way.

“Heads up kids!” she shouted, “Don’t celebrate just yet.”

“I’ll be the proctor for the second portion of the Chunnin Exam, Anko Mitarashi,” she said with a sly grin.

People calmed down, though were still stunned, by the entrance she made. They couldn’t believe the stark juxtaposition between their first proctor and the second.

Her face fell for a moment as she scanned the room, “How many are there?”

She turned to Ibiki, “Ibiki, you let all these guys pass? Your test must have been too easy. You’re getting too soft in your old age.”

Ibiki rolled his eyes, “I’m only twelve years older than you, so not as ancient as you imagine me to be. But did you ever think there must be a stronger crop of candidates this year?”

She looked out at the room, scanning the faces. So many still seemed like they were shocked from her entrance. So many looked so young. And somewhere, in there, she recognized the ones her friends had described last week, the rookie teams had all made it. She smiled; this would certainly make it fun.

“Well none of you look like much,” Anko said, loud enough for everyone to hear, “Before I’m done with you, more than half of you will be eliminated. Ibiki has been too easy on you maggots. If you think you got the stuff to actually handle some shit, follow me to the second portion of the exam.”

What choice did they have, but to do so.

For a moment, the forces took a breath, as they stretched and pulled and eased into a gentle flow for a moment. The next three days would be so much work, they knew it, but worth it in the end. Every step of the Chunnin Exams building on each other, to abate the monstrous child they had born, to ease the rip they had made so long ago. They knew now that they had to heed its call, or it rip a field of scattered holes in all the work they had ever done.

What choice did they have, but to do so.


	15. (Between) Growing Pains

Hashirama wiped the sweat off his brow and looked at his work. For a few weeks now, he had been using his wood release jutsu to construct all the buildings they needed. Sometimes Tobirama helped, other times, he told Hashirama it was silly to use his skills for simple construction work.

But the fact is, they needed construction work done. Each day, more and more people were coming to the Leaf Village. At first, Madara and Hashirama were interviewing them, but eventually, it was too much, with everything else they had to do, so they appointed some trusted members of the Uchiha and Senju clans to do it for them.

After all, these two clans were the founding clans of the village. Their homes had been the first places Hashirama built, two expansive compounds on either side of the town. He looked up at the smooth cliffside, and all that was below it – what Hashirama, Tobirama, and other Senju members who were talented at wood release jutsu had spent the last few weeks building. A main building and offices, where he, Madara, Tobirama, and a few trusted others had been working. Beside it was a building that sat empty, but Hashirama had plans to turn into a medical facility. Then, the homes, a new one for every new family, spreading out and away from the main building. And now this – a ramen shop. The first business in town.

“What do you think?” Hashirama said, looking toward the young couple beside him.

Both of their mouths were still gaping open, non-ninjas who couldn’t believe as they watched this man literally construct a new business and home for them out of nothing.

The shop wasn’t too big or fancy, an open face front with space in the back for a kitchen and the sides to seat customers. Maybe a booth too, the young man thought, facing the kitchen and out front. Above the shop was a small apartment, with amenities and two rooms, just as they had requested.

“It’s great,” the young man said, a wide smile spreading across his face.

“I can’t believe you did this for us,” the young woman said, her smile just as wide.

Hashirama shrugged his shoulders, “We’re trying to build a village here, and that doesn’t just include ninjas. It includes businesses too. We’re honored that you want to open your ramen shop here. Personally, I can’t wait to have a bowl.”

“Well, we’re honored to be considered part of the village,” the young man said, running his hand over one of the walls, ideas running through his head.

Hashirama smiled at that, “It’s obviously just wood at the moment, but we have a lot of materials to make it home – paint, furnishings, the works. You can come pick up whatever you need when you’re ready, and we’ll assign someone to help you with it.”

The young man smiled, “The sooner we can get that done, the sooner we can open up.”

He turned to the young woman beside him with a mischievous grin, “And the sooner we can start making babies for our home.”

The woman flushed, and rolled her eyes, “I’ll give you a son as soon as you have a thriving business.”

“Promise?” the young man asked, his voice soft.

“Promise,” she replied, cheeks still flushed, embarrassed that her husband would be so openly affectionate with her in front of one of the village leaders.

Hashirama chuckled at them, happy that even the Ichiraku newlyweds felt like they had a place in the village, and that they imagined it as a place to start a family. He said his goodbyes and made his way back toward the main office.

As he did, he thought about his own life. Hashirama wasn’t a romantic, as a life full of war and fighting and hardship had made it something impossible to think about. It was hard to believe that less than six months ago, he and Madara were still fighting. But things were different now, they were starting a new era. An era that he hoped would be defined by peace and growth. If you didn’t count the Uchiha and Senju clans, the Leaf Village had welcomed just over two hundred people into in just two months. More people, ninjas and non-ninjas alike, were vying for a spot in the village each day.

Sometimes Hashirama had to remember that it was all real, that his and Madara’s and Tobirama’s dreams were somehow coming true. That they were making them happen. And maybe he could allow himself to dream of a family too.

It wasn’t coincidence that he was thinking about this as he passed Mito Uzumaki’s apartment, a small structure he had built for her soon after she got here. She was one of the first to arrive, and because of that, her home was one of the closest to the main building. He hadn’t run into her much since then, just the occasional glance in passing, with everything that kept him busy. But sometimes, in the long hours of the afternoon, when a golden light pushed through the window of wherever he was working that day, he thought of her, and the strange energy he had felt when he first met her, like a pull that he couldn’t resist.

Hashirama Senju was twenty-five years old. He had seen more death than he could count, had been responsible for a lot of to. He had waged wars and made peace, and each day, with both his hands and his mind, was shaping a new history. But Hashirama had never been in love, and he thought, maybe it was time that he was.

“What are you daydreaming about?” a voice called.

Hashirama spun around, recognized Madara standing there. He grinned and gave one last glance to Mito’s apartment before walking toward him. He didn’t think that Madara knew where Mito lived, and he was glad to keep it that way as he had recognized a similar look on Madara’s face the day they first met her.

“Just thinking that we should do something with the mountain,” Hashirama said. Of course, he had been thinking that the mountain looked strange, looming over the village all solid and empty, but just not at that moment.

“What are we supposed to do with a mountain?” Madara said, his usual grey tenor in his voice, “It’s a mountain.”

“You’re usually the one with the more creative ideas, we did, after all, decide to stick with your name,” Hashirama responded, remembering how much he had liked the idea when he first heard it, had thought it was simple but powerful – Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

“If I’m the creative one, then what are you?”

Hashirama let out a devilish grin, “The handsome and talented one.”

Madara rolled his eyes, and Hashirama chuckled. They were still getting used to this, this camaraderie. Their years at battle had greatly outweighed their few years of friendship when they were younger, but in the end, they both knew this was the truer version of themselves. They were relearning how to be friends, but it felt more like falling into easy steps on a path they had strayed off rather than forging a whole new path.

“So, are you ready to do this?” Madara asked, after a moment.

He suddenly remembered why he was heading toward the main building, the meeting that was about to happen. It was a conversation they had been avoiding for months, a decision that the council needed to make, and today was the day – finally.

Hashirama knew exactly what he was going to say, knew exactly what he wanted to make happen. He smiled at his friend.

“I’m ready.”

* * *

Hashirama and Madara entered the room, everyone else turning their heads to look at them. Tobirama, a few more representatives from the Senju clan and an equal amount from the Uchiha clan. Family members and friends who they trusted, who, when Madara and Hashirama brokered for peace, were the first ones to jump on board and support them. They called themselves the Konoha council, because they didn’t know what else to call themselves, and at the moment, they were collectively part of this experiment, this creation of the village. They were still trying to figure out things, but eventually, each of these men would hold a prominent position in the Leaf Village, leading their own special force or team or branch of government. Before they could allocate any of those positions though, they needed to choose a singular leader, someone to sit at the head of the Konoha Council, to lead the whole village – someone to be Hokage.

Hashirama chuckled when he sat down. Everyone was so tense, he couldn’t deal. “Come on guys, don’t be so serious.”

Tobirama shot him a look, “We’re choosing a village leader. Being serious is exactly what we should be.”

“He’s right, you know,” Madara added.

Hashirama looked between his brother and his best friend. Everyone knew, they didn’t exactly get along, but there were some surprising places where they overlapped. Hashirama’s laid back attitude was one of those things – and it was exactly the reason, he knew, that one of them would be better suited for the position of Hokage than he was.

“All right,” he said, “I’ll be serious.”

He turned to everyone at the table, “As you know, when we conceptualized the village, we also conceptualized a single leader, called Hokage.”

Madara picked up where he left off, “The Hokage would serve two purposes. They would be responsible for handling the administrative duties of the village – assigning missions, overseeing training, and determining who is fit to fill the various positions we imagine in the village. But more importantly, they will be the village’s ultimate protector, a shinobi strong enough to protect us in potential times of crisis.”

“Though the goal is to not have times of crisis,” Tobirama added, “It’s imperative that a Hokage be both talented as ninja but also capable of handling the day-to-day duties of maintaining the village.”

“Yes,” Madara said sternly, not appreciating that Tobirama interrupted him. He knew, of course, that Hashirama and Tobirama shared most of their ideas, that everything that left Hashirama’s mouth in an official capacity usually stemmed from the dreams and ideas that he and Tobirama had in so many late-night conversations. It annoyed Madara to no end, the bond that they had, that Hashirama credited so many of his best ideas to Tobirama.

“Well isn’t it obvious,” one of the Senjus said, a name Madara couldn’t remember, “The position of Hokage should go to one of you three.”

“I agree,” one of the Uchiha representatives added, “None of this would exist without you three.”

There were nods of agreement across the room.

Madara gritted his teeth. Obviously, the position should go to either him or Hashirama. Tobirama was second to them in making this possible, and he didn’t like that public opinion, even from his own clan, included Tobirama within its conception. And of course, while Madara felt he would be okay if Hashirama got the position of Hokage, he knew that he preferred it himself.

Hashirama glanced at his friend, could see an obvious discomfort in his face. He knew now was his time to speak up, to make it known, to everyone, what he believed to be the right choice.

“Well I think it’s just as obvious that Madara should be Hokage.”

Madara was confused for a second, he hadn’t thought this is how things would go. He didn’t imagine Hashirama would fight him for the title if they decided to get it to him, just as he didn’t imagine that Hashirama would be declaring him as the obvious fit.

“Most of the ideas that we’re building here came from Madara,” Hashirama explained, “None of us would be in this room without him. He’s strong enough to protect the village and has adept ideas about how it should grow. He knows what systems we want to create and has the know-how to do so. He’s detail-oriented to almost perfection and can manage almost anything without distraction.”

Hashirama went on, knowing this is the part that mattered most, “And most importantly, don’t forget where we all were six months ago. On a battlefield, one where Madara was the first to stop fighting, to broker the peace we so desperately needed.”

“Only because you were laying down your life,” Tobirama said tersely, “He didn’t stop the fighting because he wanted peace, he stopped it because he wasn’t willing to kill you without a fight.”

“You have no idea why I stopped the fighting that day,” Madara spit, glaring at Tobirama. Tobirama met his gaze with equal annoyance and anger.

“I was a firsthand witness, I know what I saw,” Tobirama responded through gritted teeth.

“Both of you! Quiet!” Hashirama yelled, his voice stern. He so very rarely got angry, that it shocked both Madara and Tobirama into silence. They knew just how powerful Hashirama could be when he was upset, just how seriously they should take them.

“The battle is done,” he said, his voice still serious, but falling into a calmer tone, “We’ve all agreed that peace is the only option. We cannot allow the old quarrels to poison us. We are creating a new world, one that I know both of you to desperately believe in.”

“Now, we decided that council would vote on Hokage. I’m officially nominating Madara Uchiha. Are there any other nominat—”

“You,” Tobirama, “I nominate Hashirama Senju. And no one nominate me, I want it to be my brother.”

“Tobirama,” Hashirama said with a sigh, looking at his brother. He couldn’t understand why he was letting old grudges keep him from seeing that Madara was the clear choice for Hokage. It wasn’t that Hashirama didn’t believe in his own ability to do the job, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that this position was meant for Madara, not him.

“You deserve the position, Hashirama,” Tobirama said, “You always have.”

Hashirama sighed again and looked at Madara, “I think we should abstain from voting, just to make it fair.”

Madara nodded, knew that he wouldn’t throw his vote to Hashirama, knew what it would mean for everyone in the room to see that he would vote for himself. He knew Hashirama would be a good Hokage, he had faith in his friend. But he also knew that he could be a great Hokage, that he could elevate the Leaf Village in ways Hashirama would always be too peaceful and kind to think about.

Beside them, Tobirama was quick to do the math in his head. Without Madara and his brother, the room was unbalanced – six Senjus, including himself, and five Uchihas. He knew the outcome would come out in Hashirama’s favor. This was exactly why he had nominated him. But Madara wouldn’t accept that, wouldn’t appeal to the vote of the council that had more Senju members than Uchiha members. If his brother was going to be Hokage, like he knew he should, he needed to prove to Madara Uchiha that Hashirama was better. The bitterness between the Senju clan and the Uchiha clan still boiled at Madara’s blood, Tobirama knew it. So he needed a way to prove that Hashirama being Hokage wasn’t just an issue for the Senju and Uchiha to decide, but an issue for everyone to decide – so he could prove, once and for all, that Hashirama was better.

“I don’t think we should vote,” Tobirama said, loud enough for everyone to here.

Everyone looked at him, confused.

“We’re not daimyo’s or emperors. We don’t just get to claim power because we decide it belongs to us,” Tobirama began. “Look around this room, all of us are part of two great clans, yes. But aren’t we imagining this village as a land full of many great clans – why shouldn’t they have a say in it? Already we’ve recruited the Hyuga clan, the Aburame clan, and the Nara clan – powerful clans who have been friends and foes in equal measures, who’ve decided to live together in peace with us. And not just clans, but individual ninjas and non-ninjas. They’re making homes in this new world we’re creating. Shouldn’t they have a say in who their leader is?”

“What are you saying, Tobirama?” Hashirama asked.

“I’m saying we should have an election, but not just between us. We cannot keep repeating the old ways, where the Uchiha and Senju clans are the only clans in power. We founded this village on the idea that ninjas and non-ninjas of all types can live and grow together. Our leader should be elected in the same way. I’m saying let the people decide. Put forth both you and Madara as candidates and let our people decide who is more worthy of being leader.”

There was a mummering around the room, each member of the Uchiha and Senju clan realizing what Tobirama said was true. Hashirama looked at his brother with pride, Tobirama always did have the best ideas. Of course, the village should decide. The council could choose the nominees, but the position of Hokage was meant to serve the people of the Leaf Village, so why not let them choose?

Madara was thinking too. On one hand, this just seemed like another one of Tobirama’s ploys to keep him out of power. But on the other hand, what better way to prove to Tobirama and all the members of the Senju clan that he was better suited to be Hokage than Hashirama, that an ideal Leaf Village was one where he was in power, and Hashirama was by his side.

Madara looked at Hashirama and nodded at him. Hashirama grinned at him. Both old friends feeling a strange push toward the idea, an assurance that this is exactly what was meant to be. Both felt this way because they both expect the outcome to work in their favor. Madara expected to win on his own merit, and Hashirama expected Madara to win too, proving everything that Hashirama believed of his friend.

Of course, Fate had other plans. But neither Madara nor Hashirama knew just how much she had manipulated their lives so far, and just how strong her hold would be, until their dying breaths. 

* * *

A few days later, Hashirama was exploring the woods on the edge of the Leaf Village. The land that they claimed, when all the fighting was over, was vast, so much bigger than the space they currently occupied. But Hashirama and Madara imagined it so much bigger, filling every corner of the land. Here on the outskirts they would have training grounds of all sorts of varieties, from simple, small spaces used for training young ninjas to vast mazes meant to stump even the best of tracking ninjas.

The plot of land Hashirama was on now would become something special, something dark, but necessary. Madara had concocted the idea, and surprisingly, Tobirama had agreed for the need for it. But it was Hashirama who would make it happen.

Hashirama felt the strange, sticky feeling in his gut that had been sitting there since the council meeting a few days before. That had not gone how he had planned at all. He was so sure that Madara deserved the position of Hokage, so sure that everyone on the council would agree, even Tobirama.

It had been Madara, years ago, who had encouraged Hashirama’s ideas about ninja fighting for peace, who had decided that they needed a place to do so, who had suggested they come back here, to the valley where they had the first conversation, who had named it, who had so many of the ideas that were making it grow and expand.

And it was Madara who had stopped the fighting, who had demanded that his clansmen end the carnage, who had decided it was time for peace. Hashirama had given up, that was the truth of it. Tobirama made him sound noble, made it seem like laying down his own life had been a strategic plan in getting Madara to end the battle. But it hadn’t been. Hashirama was just tired, tired of fighting and tired of his life being constant bloodshed. But those moments were darker than he could ever think of, further back in the _Between_ than we are now, moments we’ll learn about, moments that Hashirama will eventually have to face head on.

Madara made sense to Hashirama as Hokage. Tobirama did too. To him, they both had big ideas and plans, they were the ones the inspired him. They deserved the position more than he did. But what Tobirama had said had made sense, that it should be up to the people to decide, to let the Leaf Village have a say in who their leaders were. They were making something new; the Senju and the Uchihas shouldn’t be the only ones with a say. A Senju and a Uchiha were the candidates, but that didn’t matter. A Hokage would represent everyone, not just their clan. Whoever got the position would have to trade their clan loyalties for village loyalties and guide all their new citizens in doing so as well, to understand they had a new purpose.

Of course, Hashirama was too caught up in affection and faith, for his best friend and for his brother, to really see that he was the one who could do that best. He, more than anyone, was willing to forget the old ways, to reach for peace. It was his dream. And the idea of being Hokage didn’t disturb him, in fact, it excited him. It’s just there was a hesitance, a strange lack of faith in himself. The forces glanced between each other, through the strings of Hashirama’s life, knowing they would have to remedy this doubt, to put their plan in action.

They nudged Hashirama forward, turning around the bend. That’s when he ran into Mito Uzumaki.

“Oh, Mito!” Hashirama said, a sudden nervous energy running through him. He had been so distracted by his thoughts; he hadn’t even sensed someone else was there. He was struck for a moment by how beautiful he found her, skin pale and hair a brilliant dark red. He had never seen anyone with hair like hers before.

“Hello Hashirama,” she responded, a soft smile on her face.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked, confused and flustered. They were miles from the center of the village, from her apartment. He hadn’t expected to meet anyone, especially not the woman who had been popping in and out of his mind since he had first met her.

Mito looked around, the golden light of the sun streaming between the trees and catching the light or her dark green eyes, “Well it’s beautiful out here, isn’t it?”

Hashirama felt his heart rate pick up, and almost laughed aloud to himself. He felt like a little kid with a crush, giddy and nervous all at once, “Yeah, I’d say it is.”

“Sometimes I just like to wonder around,” Mito replied, “To get a little lost, to think about what this village could become.”

Hashirama smiled at that, at the idea of her caring about what the Leaf Village could become too, “Well I could tell you what this part may become.”

Mito looked at him, interested.

“I’m currently scoping out the area for a training ground, a dense forest. We plan to fence it in, fill it with traps and creatures and a lot more, like a survival course for trainees to work through or take tests on,” he explained, excitement in his voice.

“Sounds like a forest of death,” Mito said, her voice a little sad, imagining it.

“Well,” Hashirama said softly, noticing that she seemed sad, “The point of filling it would horrors wouldn’t be to kill anyone, but to prepare them to handle dangerous circumstances, to be prepared for whatever they can face. It wouldn’t be something we’d let just anyone face casually.”

“I understand the purpose, Hashirama,” Mito said, the same sadness in her voice. She was remembering the life she had run from, the way ninjas in her clan trained themselves in darkness and strife.

Hashirama didn’t like that she still looked so disappointed, “Of course, we’re still figuring it out.”

Mito’s expression perked up then, she turned to him, “Just like you’re trying to figure out the village leader? The Hokage, you’re going to call him.”

Hashirama felt himself flush, and again, was embarrassed by how his body and emotions were reacting, silly and strange, “Yeah, we’re still figuring out the leader.”

Mito smirked at his flush, which enticed him more, his heart jumping, “As if it isn’t obvious?”

Hashirama understood what she was implying, from how playfully she was looking at him. It thrilled him, a rush of happiness pushing through him. But even if she believed he would be a good leader though, something inside of him was pushing him to know why, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You, Hashirama,” Mito said, looking at him seriously and softly, with an expression that made his heart jump, “You should be the Hokage. You’re strong, but also kind. Everyone can see how much you care deeply about the people here, even the ones you’ve just met. And you believe in peace, more deeply than anyone I’ve ever met. You’re the reason this village exists, and why villages just like it are cropping all over the world, why ninjas are refusing to fight each other and instead, are fighting for each other. Why shouldn’t you be Hokage?”

Though neither of them noticed it, while they were speaking, they had drawn closer together. Mito stood was just inches from Hashirama as she spoke, as she described him in ways that he knew of himself but couldn’t imagine through other’s eyes. He stared down at her for a moment, the space between them feeling both monumental and barely there, his head spinning with everything she said about him. Only he wasn’t really thinking about it at the moment, thinking instead about the sureness of her stare, the glow of her hair, and the softness of her lips. He was drawn to it all in a dizzying way.

Fate looked at Chance, shook her head. He eased up his grip, and as he did, Hashirama caught his senses, shook his head. Reminded himself what was important.

“Madara is all those things too,” he said, once again letting his faith in his friend outweigh what was so obvious, “Why doesn’t he deserve to be Hokage?”

Mito turned from him, losing the moment too, the one that just seconds ago had made her feel so many of the possible and impossible things that could happen between her and Hashirama Senju. She was slow when she spoke next, knowing it was a risk.

“Some men want power for power’s sake, to play with it like an experiment, to see what they could make happen – whether it be good or bad. The possibility of that type of control entices them,” she said, her voice dark as she spoke. When she did, Hashirama felt the same sense he had felt the first day when he had met her, weeks and weeks ago. That there was something darker buried inside of her, something he was willing to let her share in her own time.

“And other men,” she turned back to Hashirama when she said this, “Other men want power because they want to see what they can make happen for others, to see what is possible when power is held humbly, not for control. Those men are the ones who create possibility for everyone, not just themselves.”

Again, he felt himself caught up her hair and eyes and lips and all the other parts of her that he wanted to know and understand. He had to force himself to hear what she was saying, to listen to what she was implying.

“You think I’m that type of man?” Hashirama asked softly, knowing how silly it was, how much it seemed like he was just asking her to stroke his ego. But really, it was confirmation. Hashirama didn’t believe that of himself, he needed someone to confirm it for him.

Mito nodded, “I know you are. Just as I know that Madara Uchiha is the former.”

The spell broke then, the thing that had been drawing him so closely to Mito this whole time, it cracked and pulled him away. He stepped away from her, shaking his head, “You don’t know him like I do.”

Mito shook her head, “I don’t need to know him to see it.”

“Madara is my friend,” Hashirama said, “He’s been a friend longer than most people would know. I understand him, the way he works. I know he seems dark on the outside, but on the inside, he cares about The Leaf Village more than anyone I know.”

“I’m not critiquing his care,” Mito responded, “but his reasons for caring.”

“You barely know him,” Hashirama said, eager to defend Madara, even if disagreeing with Mito felt like treading waters he didn’t want to cross yet.

Mito leveled her gaze, looking up at him with a sly smile. “I barely know you either, yet you didn’t deny any of my observations about you.”

Hashirama was taken aback for a moment, a hot flush spreading across his face. And then he laughed, the joy of her cleverness falling out of him a hearty, breathy chuckle. She smiled too, and then she was laughing, a soft, almost serene tinkling compared to his own.

“Well,” Hashirama said, as their laughter died down, not thinking, “it’s hard to deny a beautiful woman giving you compliments.”

Mito’s face flushed a bright pink and she turned away. Hashirama’s heart stuttered, why had he said that.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice a little wobbly, “I didn’t mean to be so forward.”

“No, it’s okay,” Mito said, still looking slightly away from him, but he could still a bright smile on her face. She was just a flustered as he was, and she was happy about it too. Giddy joy pushed through him again.

“Well, um,” he said, rubbing the back of his head, a bright smile on his face, “I guess I should get back to surveying the land.”

“Yeah,” Mito said, biting the bottom of her lip. It was enough to make Hashirama feel like he was going to go mad for just a moment. “I guess I should get back to getting lost.”

For a moment, they held each other’s gazes, a smile on both their faces. And then they laughed lightly again and walked in opposite directions – Mito back toward the village, and Hashirama further into the forest, casting glances back at each other. For a moment, Mito paused and called back to Hashirama.

“Hashirama.”

He turned toward her “Yeah?”

“I’m going to vote for you,” she called to him, “And I won’t be the only one, I can promise you that.”

She gave him one last smile after that, and then turned back. He watched her until she was out of sight. He knew, more than anything, that the Hokage position belonged to Madara, that his long-suffering friend deserved it more than anyone else. But something in the way Mito had told him he deserved it, something in her sureness, put an image in his head. Himself, in the office they were building for the Hokage, watching over the village. Protecting, nurturing it, and helping it through the growing pains of all that it could be. He wanted it, he realized, more deeply than he would admit to himself. And although he believed everything he said, that Madara cared about the Leaf Village just as much as he did, there was the tiniest flicker of unease in him. A tiny spark, hidden deep in the woven strands that were working deep and fast inside and around him.

The forces had done their work.

* * *

Mito was right, of course. In the following two weeks, ninjas and non-ninjas alike submitted their votes for who they believed to be Hokage, each of them thinking deeply of who they wanted to be leader. For most, it was easy – the man who built their homes, who greeted them by name when he passed them, the man who, tales said, had the power of a God on the battlefield, but enough mercy to give anyone a chance. Not the other one, the man whose power was just as strong, but whose mercy was less. Who seemed more concerned about the people could contribute to the Leaf Village rather than the villagers themselves. He wouldn’t be their Hokage, the people would make sure of it.

“We’ve counted three times,” Tobirama announced to the council at the end of the voting period, “It’s Hashirama.”

Hashirama and Madara both felt a rush of emotion. Hashirama was surprised, disappointed only for a second, but then he felt something else rising up in him. Joy and hope and ideas upon ideas, all the possibilities of what he could make happen as Hokage. His want of the position was suddenly realized, with a sudden sureness that this is where his destiny lied.

But then he remembered Madara, how much he advocated for him, how much, just days ago, he had wanted Madara in the position he was in now. Just as his happiness over the position was a sudden force, so was his stirring of unease, the spark that had been resting at the back of his mind was suddenly inflamed.

He knew Madara well enough to know that he was holding back anger when he asked, “By what margin?”

“Madara,” Hashirama said, caution in his voice, “Is that really necessary?”

Madara ignored him, and stared at Tobirama, “By what margin?”

Tobirama let out a sigh. He was pleased with the results, they had proved exactly what he believed, that his brother deserved to be Hokage. Some part of him relished the idea of sharing the results with Madara, proving to that Uchiha just how little the new peoples of the Leaf Village thoughts of him, but another, much deeper part of him, worried about how Madara would react.

“Tell me,” Madara said, his voice tense.

Tobirama glanced around the rest of the council, Senju and Uchiha alike with looks of unease on their faces. They knew exactly what the results were, as well as he, and knew just what type of trouble telling Madara could entail.

“Currently, we have 325 adult members of the Leaf Village, mostly ninjas, but some non-ninjas. All of them participated in the vote,” Tobirama began. “Of those 325 votes, 248 went toward Hashirama and only 77 to you.”

Everyone in the room did the math in their heads, knowing it meant that Madara had only secured the votes of his own clan, and barely a few others. Hashirama looked at Madara, but his face was blank and unfeeling. It was a look Hashirama had seen on the battlefield time and time again, the cold, sudden blankness that would draw over Madara’s face right before he would kill someone.

“Very well,” Madara said, his voice just as cold and unfeeling. He pushed back from his chair and stood up, everyone in the room tensed with worry for a moment, but Madara just walked toward the door, leaving them behind.

“Madara!” Hashirama called, following him out into the hallway outside of the room.

Madara continued to walk away from him but Hashirama followed.

“Madara,” Hashirama said, as he caught up with him, “speak to me.”

Madara paused and looked at Hashirama, his face just as blank as before, “Congratulations old friend, you’ll make a great Hokage.”

Hashirama hated seeing this side of Madara, “Stop that. Tell me how you feel about this.”

Madara’s face relaxed, just a little, “As I said, you’ll be a great Hokage.”

Hashirama sighed, could tell he wasn’t going to get through to him, knew just how dark and broody Madara could get about stuff sometimes, but feared what would happen if he let this go to far. But then, a new idea sprouted into his.

“Be my advisor!” Hashirama yelled, excited by the sudden force of his idea. He knew this would be a way out of it.

“What?” Madara asked dully.

“Well, this village is something we’re making up as we go along, so why not?” Hashirama said, his voice bright and excited, “Why not have an official advisor? Obviously the Hokage will be advised by the council, but there should be a chief advisor, someone who stands above the rest of the council and directly consults with the Hokage.”

Madara shook his head, but when he spoke again, his eyes weren’t as lifeless, “You can’t make up positions just to appease me.”

Hashirama smiled at that, “Well sure I can, I’m Hokage now.”

“Besides, it’s not something I’m doing for you. It’s something I need, someone to help guide me and talk through decisions, and be there for the villagers if anything happens to me. There isn’t anyone I would want by my side more than you.”

Slowly, but surely, Hashirama saw Madara’s expression come back to life, saw the ways his mind was working behind his dark eyes. It was the expression he liked best on Madara, the one that he knew would be followed by ideas and philosophies and dreams about what the Leaf Village could do.

But all Madara said, something like a smile at the corner of his mouth, was, “Don’t tell Tobirama that.”

It was the truth, of course, that Hashirama could picture Tobirama in an advisor position just as easily as he could Madara. But Tobirama had different ideas, bold strokes about ninja training academies that he wanted to begin working on as soon as recruitment was over, and leadership was settled. And Madara needed this, needed a position to designate him the type of power he deserved. But a kind of controlled power, a power where Hashirama could keep an eye on that sense of unease he felt.

Hashirama smiled at him, “Please be my advisor.”

Madara smiled then, his expression fully recovered and so different than it had been just moments before, “Okay, old friend, I’ll be your advisor.”

Hashirama chuckled and threw his arm around Madara’s shoulders, but Madara pulled back.

“You go tell the council about your advisor idea. I need to leave the village for a few days,” Madara said.

Hashirama gave him a confused look.

“Don’t worry,” Madara said, a smirk on his face, “I’ll be in time for your inauguration.”

With that, he turned and headed out, Hashirama watching him as he did. Hashirama couldn’t quite settle on what emotions he was feelings at that moment, so much happening in so little time and so much pushing through him, bouncing all around. He decided that maybe he was hopeful, the leadership of their new village finally settled, and just like he wanted, it would be him and Madara, side by side.

Unlike Hashirama, Madara knew exactly what he was feeling. And as he left the building and walked out into the dark night, he knew exactly where he needed to go. 

* * *

A few days later, Mito was on her patio, staring up at the dark face of the mountainside in front of her, its vast expanse stretching into the blanketed night sky beyond it. Her eyes fell downward, landing over the main office buildings, on the windows, that after tomorrow’s inauguration, would belong to Hashirama Senju. 

She hadn’t spoken to him since before the election, that day in the woods, but she had seen him a few times in passing. Each time, he threw a hearty smile and wave in her direction. She would always smile or wave back, but with so much to do to prepare for the inauguration, she knew she shouldn’t bother him with talking.

Though she wanted to badly to talk to him. It was strange. Mito had come to the Leaf Village for a reason, had heard tales of the two men who were trying to create a new world, one where ninjas fought for peace. It had enticed her more than she could describe, and she knew, deep down, that for this new world to work, she needed to help them. That the secret she carried could either make or break a new version of the ninja world, and she would rather help make it.

What Mito hadn’t expected was to feel so connected to Hashirama Senju from the moment she first met him, walking into the room they designated for recruitment. It was like something buried in her bones had come to life the moment she saw him and spoke to him, like something inside of her was always meant to meet him.

Mito had heard about Hashirama Senju before she met him, of course, the man that other ninjas called a God. In fact, the Uzumaki and Senju clans had worked together quite a few times, but their paths had never crossed, not until the day she showed up in the Leaf Village. But it wasn’t just all the stories of Hashirama Senju that drew her to him, nor was it her attraction to him, as she was blunt enough with herself to admit that upfront. No, it was something deeper and older and more than she could imagine.

Mito Uzumaki had lived with an ancient creature buried inside of her for all twenty-two years of her life, but it wasn’t until she met Hashirama Senju that she felt something as deep and ancient as it call to her. She was meant to be with Hashirama Senju, she knew it, and she was meant to take the evil buried inside of her and make it something new, something that planted the seeds of this new world. She didn’t know how she knew – she just did.

“Hello Mito Uzumaki,” a voice said, a call in the dark.

Mito turned, shocked, and caught a flash of red eyes. Then Madara Uchiha stepped out of the darkness, his eyes black, not red, standing just outside her patio.

“Hello Madara Uchiha,” Mito said, her stomach dropping.

She hadn’t just met Hashirama her first day in the village, she had also met Madara Uchiha. And everything she felt for him was the exact opposite of what she felt for Hashirama. Seeing Madara chilled her to her bones, uncovered every single fear inside of her that she never knew she had, called out to the darkness inside of her until she felt like she no longer existed, only it.

If she was meant to be with Hashirama, then she was also meant to be fearful of Madara, her draw to the first just as strong and potent and sure as her unease around the second. Of course, Madara had never given her reason to be fearful, just as Hashirama had never given her reason to want him so badly. At least not in that first moment, anyway, not in meeting both of them for the first time.

But in the weeks since she had moved to the Leaf Village, she had watched them both, each of them confirming her gut feelings about them. Hashirama was strong, the type of strong that assured people, made them feel protected. He treated everyone in the village as a friend, and when he spoke about what the Leaf Village could be, there was so much hope in his voice. Madara was strong too, but the type of strong that intimidated people. He only treated those who he felt he was worthy of being so as a friend, and when he spoke about what the Leaf Village could be, there was an edge in his voice, like he was hungry and waiting for the village to become something worthy of him devouring.

Right now, he was looking at her with that hungry expression too, not responding to her greeting. She felt the darkness inside of her stir.

“I heard that you went off for a few days, after the results were announced,” Mito said, curious about this, but mostly just to fill space, to get him to stop looking at her like that.

He rolled his eyes, “This village is still too small, the people talk too much.”

“I actually like that we’re still small enough, right now, to talk to each other,” Mito said, sensing the disdain he had in his voice when he talked about that. “Of course, it won’t stay like that for long. New people are joining the village every day.”

Madara looked around, like he could see through the darkness and shadow of the might, “Yes, it’s going to grow.”

“Isn’t that what you want?”

He looked at her then, curious at first, and then his hungry expression returned. He walked closer, stepping unto her patio, and looking down at her. She stepped back, her heart racing.

“Yes,” Madara said, “I want it to grow, though only if it does so in the right way.”

Mito was scared, but she was also brave, and she didn’t like what he was implying, “And let me guess, Hashirama being Hokage isn’t the right way?”

Madara sighed, “Everyone is so charmed by him. Hashirama will make a fine Hokage – he’s strong and organized and can get people to believe in new ideas. But he’s not bold enough to see everything that the Leaf Village could be.”

He gazed down at Mito, whose gaze didn’t falter. She didn’t want him to know her fear.

Madara continued, “He doesn’t understand what real power this village has, and what he could do with it.”

The way he looked at her, that deep hunger in his eyes, it was almost like he knew. But there was no way he could, no way that anyone could know.

“And you do,” Mito said, “You know where the power is at?”

“I have some idea,” Madara said coolly.

They stood in silence, the tension between them palpable. The tension was so different than what she had felt in the woods with Hashirama a few weeks ago. That had been warm and pulling, something she wanted to dive into. But this was cold and hard, like she would cut herself on it if she tried to break it. There was no way he could know, there was no way that what he was implying meant what she feared.

“Where do you see yourself?” Madara asked, finally breaking the silence. “You’re the only Uzumaki who we’ve recruited, the rest of your clan is scattered to the winds or trying to start their own village, which will be a pale imitation, I’m sure. You’re all alone, Mito. What will be your place in the Leaf Village as it grows?”

She had no idea what he was aiming for with that, “I guess I’ll have to see as the village grows, where I belong.”

“What if your place was with a powerful clan?” Madara asked, stepping closer to her. She backed up, bumping into the wall of her apartment, “What if you joined the Uchiha clan?”

For a moment, Mito couldn’t grasp what he was saying. But then she saw it all, knew exactly what he was implying, what the hunger in his eyes meant.

“You barely even know me,” she gasped out, in shock. “This is only the second time we’ve ever spoken.”

Madara chuckled, “I’ve seen how you’ve watched me.”

Mito gritted her teeth, relief and fear washing over her. He didn’t know what was inside of her, didn’t want that. Instead, he wanted her in a different way, in a way that only made the unease in her stomach grow, “If you’ve seen me watching you, you know who else I’ve been watching too.”

“Oh, come on,” Madara said, leaning in a little, “If he gets to be the Hokage, the least I could get in the girl.”

Mito moved out from under him as he leaned in further, quickly moving to the side, opening her apartment door, stepping in, putting her hand on the handle to close it. Madara was taken aback for a moment. He had never seen Mito in action, didn’t know how fast she could move.

She kept her door half open, just for a moment, “Leave, Madara.”

…and then slammed it in his face.

Madara glared at the closed door for a moment, and then jumped off, disappearing into the dark shadows of the night. Of course, there’s more here. More to the story of where Madara went after the results, more about why he was confident enough to come on so strong to Mito. We’ve been a little unfair here, existing only into Mito and Hashirama’s head. We’ll learn Madara’s side eventually, in a _Between_ both forward and backwards.

But for now, know this. After Madara left, Mito found herself moving, her heart racing, her head full of too much. She knew, from the moment that she met Hashirama Senju, that he would have to know. That if she ever wanted to use what was inside of her to help the Leaf Village, that he needed to know. Madara’s advances had pushed something forward, had opened a part of her that was suddenly aware of how critical everything was. The Leaf Village’s future depended on it.

Mito left her apartment, and ran to the far edge of the village, where she knew the Senju compound was. When she knocked, Hashirama answered, bleary eyed and surprised.

“Mito,” he said, a little embarrassed by his half-asleep state.

Mito looked up at him, her eyes fearful and calm all at once, “Lord Hokage, there’s something I have to tell you.”

Nothing would ever been the same for them again. Not Hashirama, not Mito, and certainly not Madara. Everything has its growing pains, the Leaf Village included. This was only the beginning of a very long night, and eventually, a very long fight.


	16. (Here) All In the Numbers

As they moved through the village and past the familiar training grounds they all knew, going further to the edges of the village than they ever had before , they felt the tension leaving their bodies, the sharp edges of the written test leaving their bones. For a moment, they all relaxed, but then they remembered what they were walking into – a new, unknown challenge directed by a proctor who was somehow scarier than the last, in totally different ways.

“So, what do you think it’s gonna be?” Naruto asked Sasuke and Sakura. All the Rookie Nine stayed near each other but had huddled around each of their own teams as they traveled.

“Probably not something you can just talk your way out of,” Sasuke, remembering how Naruto had jumped up and yelled at the last proctor. Naruto really was prone to speeches, a trait Sasuke found he was actually starting to appreciate, though he wanted no part in it himself.

“How did you end up cheating anyway?” Sakura asked, “Because you talked a big game.”

“Why do you think I needed to cheat?” Naruto responded, defensive.

Sakura gave him an incredulous look.

His shoulders sagged, “Well yeah, I guess I had to cheat.”

“So, how did you do it?” Sakura asked, curious.

Naruto had a brief flash of Hinata offering her answers, but not taking them, too fearful of what would happen to either of them. And the test, every single question blank, barely getting by so he could face the final question, the only question that mattered, head on.

He grinned at Sakura, “It’s a secret.”

“He probably didn’t answer anything at all,” Sasuke said, remembering how utterly frustrated Naruto had looked, “Probably just got by on pure luck, based on that last question.”

Naruto shot him a look, “Well not all of us can takes tests as well as you two.”

“I had to cheat,” Sasuke said, not sure why he was admitting this. It would look like failure on his part, but maybe not, because he had been so clever in his cheating, “Used my eyes to mimic the moves of someone in front of me.”

“Really?” Naruto asked, surprise on his face.

Sasuke nodded.

Naruto turned to Sakura, “How did you cheat?”

“On come on,” Sasuke said, “you know Sakura was smart enough to figure out those answers on her own.”

Sakura’s heart skipped and her face flushed. She hadn’t expected this when she had become teammates with Sasuke, that he was notice how smart she was, and compliment her on it often. It was definitely something she enjoyed and kept her head spinning late at night, when all she could think about was Sasuke.

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Naruto said with a shrug, “Whatever’s up next, I’m sure we can handle. That new proctor isn’t as scary as she’s pretending to be.”

“Whatever you say,” Sakura said, rolling her eyes at him.

Naruto gave her a sheepish grin. He was pumped they had made it through the first round and knew that they could make it through whatever was coming next, especially since both his teammates seemed like they were in such good moods. Nothing could stop them, at least not in Naruto’s mind.

A little further back, Team 8 shared the ways that they had gotten through the test.

“With Akamaru on my side, it was easy. I bet we didn’t even get caught once, did we?” Kiba set, petting Akamaru, who was currently resting in the bottom pocket of Kiba’s jacket. He yipped in response.

“I’m sure we all got caught at some point,” Shino said, remembering how often the sentinels had marked their sheets, “We just didn’t get caught enough.”

Kiba looked at Shino with a shocked expression, “So you cheated?”

Shino sighed, “Yes.”

Kiba chuckled to himself, gloating. Shino shook his head.

“What about you Hinata?” Kiba asked.

“I did okay,” Hinata said lightly.

“You didn’t have to cheat, did you?” Kiba asked, remembering how smart Hinata was, how like the many things she was great at, she did a good job of hiding it too.

Hinata nodded, eyes downcast. She didn’t like them knowing that she didn’t have to cheat, didn’t want to make them feel bad because of their own lack of answers.

“Good job,” Shino said, knowing, just like Kiba, how much Hinata liked to cover up her accomplishments.

“Yeah, we like having a smart girl on the team,” Kiba said. Hinata’s face flushed and she smiled. She had good teammates; she knew it. They were nicer to her and believed in her more than she felt she deserved. But she was working on that, working on remembering she deserved kindness.

A few paces behind them, Neji stared at the back of Hinata’s head. It had been years since he had seen his cousin, but honestly, she looked just as pathetic as she always did. Seeing her here expanded the dark, heavy anger that he always carried with him. The fact that she was fresh out of the academy but participating in the Chunnin exams at the same time as him, well, it just went to show the type of privileges the main family had.

Then again, there had been those rumors. The ones whispered behind the closed doors of the branch family’s walls. Whispers they didn’t want Neji to hear, whispers that Hinata was no longer the Hyuga heiress, that Hiashi had kicked her out, was training up Hanabi in her stead.

“Neji, did you hear me?” TenTen asked, pulling him out of his glare. TenTen and Lee knew the issues Neji had with his family, couldn’t help it when they had been teammates for nearly a year and a half now. There weren’t many secrets between the three of them.

“What?” Neji asked.

“TenTen just asked what you think this next portion of the exam is going to be like?” Lee asked, curious about his teammate’s answer.

Neji thought about it for a moment, “I’m betting it’s some type of survival challenge.”

“Why’s that?” TenTen asked.

“Well,” Neji began, “The Chunnin Exam is meant to test our skills as a ninja, but they’re likely to focus on essential skills. Intelligence and cunning were part of the first portion, but surely endurance and survival matter too?”

“You think it will be like a survival battle?” Lee asked, eager for a fight, eager to showed that he belonged and could be strong enough.

Neji shrugged his shoulders, “Maybe, or something like that.”

“Well, if it’s about endurance, we’re the team that can handle it,” TenTen said, remembering their shared and individual burdens, everything she knew about them and they knew about her. They’d make it through this.

Not too far for them, Shikamaru couldn’t help thinking about the girl who had sat beside him. He turned toward his own teammates, “Did anyone try to cheat off of you two? Or did you see anyone else cheating?”

“No,” Ino said, “I just enjoyed watching the other teams get eliminated after we all had our answers.”

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, leave it to Ino to be vindictive about teams of ninjas she had never even met.

Chouji shrugged his shoulders at him, “I didn’t notice anything. Why?”

“No reason,” Shikamaru said. But there was a reason, and he glanced back at her, toward the back of the crowd, with her two teammates. He still couldn’t put a finger on why he had shared his answers with her, even though he knew it was putting himself and his whole team at risk, especially since they didn’t seem to have more instance of cheating outside of their own charade.

Just at the moment, the girl glanced up and caught his gaze. Shikamaru felt his stomach drop and turned away.

Temari was confused for a moment and mostly, wished that kid hadn’t looked back at her. She had been glad of the answers he had given her, but she needed their interactions to stop there. Needed all interactions with anyone to stop really. Her objectives were so much beyond that boy and that phony test and the exam and what the Sand village thought she was actually here for.

“Man,” Kankuro said as they walked on, “Sure is taking a while; it better be worth it.”

“They’re probably just taking us to a training ground on the edge of the village,” Temari said, “That’s how the Leaf Village is set up, their training facilities encircle the village.”

“Yeah well I didn’t need a geography lesson,” Kankuro said.

Temari sighed and remembered that things were only good between her and her brothers when she was quiet, or when she was just let them do what they wanted to do.

“Whatever it is,” Gaara said, his voice deep and dark, “I’m antsy.”

Chills of fear pushed through both Kankuro and Temari. They knew exactly what it meant for Gaara to be antsy, knew to expect nothing but horror and bloodshed. But then again, that’s exactly the reason why they were taking the exams.

“Alright! This is it!” someone shouted at the front of the crowd. Everyone looked up, eyes on Anko, their new proctor. And just beyond her, at the gates that stood beyond her, tall and wide, encircling a dense forest. Some people in the crowd, who had taken the exam a few times, recognized it. Others had never seen it before, despite living in the village their whole lives.

“Luckily for you brats we’re nice enough to give you a meal,” Anko explained, and saw the rush of relief in the crowd. They had no idea what was coming, “But after that, we’ll get right back to the exams.”

“So, get in line and grab a meal,” Anko explained, gesturing to the small building just outside the tall gates, where some Chunnin stood in front of stacks of bento boxes. “You have an hour to eat and rest. We’ll begin at sunset, so I suggest you enjoy your meal.”

Anko looked at the crowd, knew exactly how to rile them up, “Because for many of you, it will be your last meal.”

That’s all it took for all the tension to come back to them all.

* * *

Ibiki Moreno was walking across the village, Naruto Uzumaki’s test still on his mind. After Anko took the remaining genin away, he and his sentries had cleaned up the room, gathering the tests and returning them to the Hokage to give him a report on how many teams had failed or given up, the stats on who had been caught cheating, and a review of test answers. Even though the genin only needed to stay for the final question to pass the first portion of the exam, how they performed during it mattered to the Hokage, and other Kages who would be choosing to promote genin to chunnin – every minute detail mattered.

As usual, most people had a mix of both correct and incorrect answers on their exams and almost every one of them had been caught cheating, some just once but others upwards of four times, barely making the cut. But there was one genin who hadn’t been caught cheating at all, and incidentally, had a completely blank test. A first ever, passing a kid who hadn’t even attempted to figure out the initial questions. Then again, it was that same kid who had riled the others up to stay for the final questions.

“Let me guess,” the Hokage asked after Ibiki had dismissed his team, and it was just the two of them, “That kid was Naruto Uzumaki?”

Ibiki nodded and was surprised when a smile broke out on the Hokage’s face. He chuckled too and said, “So much like his mother, that one.”

A memory of Kushina flashed bright and hot across Ibiki’s mind, the first time Minato ever introduced her to him, fierce from the start.

“That’s the same thing I thought,” Ibiki said.

“Though his face, it’s all Minato,” Hiruzen mused. “Naruto wants to be Hokage, you know?”

“I’ve heard,” Ibiki said, remembering Naruto’s outburst. “I bet that want would stretch a lot further if he knew his father was Hokage too.”

The Hokage looked at him seriously now, “Naruto Uzumaki will never know who his parents are, it complicates too many things. It’s bad enough that Mizuki told him he is the jinchuriki for the Nine-Tails.”

Ibiki sighed, all the secrets inside of him tumbling. He carried for much for the Leaf Village, “I wasn’t suggesting that sir. More than anyone, I know just how imperative it is that we keep what happened on the night of the Nine-Tailed Fox attack secret. I mean, other than yourself and the council, I’m the only one who knows _all_ the secrets of that night. And I intend to keep it that way.”

“Very well,” Hiruzen said, “You’re dismissed.”

Ibiki nodded and left. Now, he was walking through the village while thinking too hard on Naruto Uzumaki. On what a kid with guts like that could do. He was nearing his apartment when he heard a shouting from above.

“2500!” yelled the overlapping voices of a man and woman, familiar to him. He looked up. On the roof of the apartment across the street were four ninjas – Guy, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma. Guy and Kakashi were both doing push-ups, and based on their expressions, it looked like they had been doing them for a while. Kurenai and Asuma were laughing and cheering them on.

“I’m not stopping until I reach five thousand!” Guy yelled, increasing his speed. Kakashi rolled his eyes at him and increased his speed to match.

Ibiki let out a short chuckle, remembered vaguely about the ways that Guy and Kakashi were known for challenging each other to different feats for no reason. Well, Guy was known for challenging Kakashi, and Kakashi was known for playing along. He turned to finish the walk to his own apartment when he remembered that each of them had teams in the exams, including the rookie teams. And all of them had passed through the second portion of the exam. Ibiki bet they would love to hear an update on that.

He took a few jumps and landed on the roof, all of them taken aback for a moment. Kakashi and Guy stopping mid-push up.

“Don’t stop on my account,” Ibiki said, “Just thought you’d like to know the status of your teams.”

Guy jumped up and ran to Ibiki, a hand landing on his shoulder, “Of course I would!”

Kakashi got up too, slower, and looked toward Guy, “So you concede?”

“Our students are much more important than this, old friend,” Guy answered.

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, “I guess you’re right.”

“So how did they do?” Kurenai asked; Asuma nodded in agreement.

Ibiki gave them a small smile, “They all passed and are currently heading to the second portion of the exam.”

Smiles broke out across their faces in equal measures, each of them tinted with pride and hesitance.

“They passed, but how did they all do statistically?” Asuma said. He used to be part of the planning committee for the Chunnin Exams, so he knew just how much the first portion could matter to final decisions.

“Your team was only caught cheating once, Asuma,” Ibiki explained, “They worked together and got the answers quickly. It was actually pretty impressive, not many ninjas have that level of nonverbal communication and understanding.”

Asuma nodded, “It’s the Ino-Shika-Cho thing, I’m telling you.”

“And Kurenai,” Ibiki said, turning to her, “the two boys on your team were both caught cheating twice with animal assists. And the Hyuga girl, she didn’t appear to cheat at all.”

“Hinata’s brilliant,” Kurenai said, a soft smile on her face, “It doesn’t surprise me.”

There was something more in Kurenai’s expression, something beyond teacherly pride and confidence. If Ibiki had to name it, he would almost call it maternal. Then again, Ibiki knew every secret the Leaf Village had to offer. He knew Hinata Hyuga was no longer the heir to the Hyuga clan and that she was living with Kurenai. No wonder there was additional affection there.

Ibiki remembered then, the way Hinata had acted during the special kunoichi training before graduation, a necessary evil of his job. Hinata had been brave that day, a force to be reckoned with. Kurenai was right to look so proud.

“What about my students?” Guy asked, bouncing on his toes.

“The Hyuga boy was caught once, using his eyes for answers,” Ibiki said, “And the other two members worked together, used our watcher mirrors against us to reflect answers to each other. Pretty clever, though my sentinels caught it twice.”

“I knew they could do it!” Guy yelled, much louder than was needed for five people standing within close proximity with each other.

“I guess that leaves me,” Kakashi said.

“The Uchiha boy also used his eyes to his advantage, only caught once,” Ibiki answered, “And the girl, she didn’t cheat at all, though she was quite the victim of others cheating off of her. It seems like a lot of people in the room knew who would have the right answers.”

“And Naruto?”

Ibiki smiled, “He didn’t get caught cheating at all because he didn’t answer any questions at all, didn’t even attempt it. And you know the last question, the only question that matters, meant to scare them away?”

They all nodded.

“Naruto convinced almost everyone left in the room to stay. When we’ve done this formatting in the past, we’ve always lost more than half the room in fear of the final question. But that kid called me out, told me he wasn’t giving up no matter what, and well, it seemed to encourage most people in the room to stay on.”

Ibiki could see the outlines of a smile under Kakashi’s mask, “Yeah that sounds like Naruto. He seems like a babbling idiot most of the time, but somehow, you listen to him and you’re convinced to keep going.”

“I guess you could call it a skill,” Ibiki said, “But more teams means more competition for the next portion.”

Kakashi sighed, “Yeah, I’m not sure how much talking is going to get Naruto through five days in the Forest of Death.”

“They begin at sunset, don’t they?” Guy asked, looking down at the horizon, which was just starting to turn golden with the shallow edges of sundown.

Ibiki nodded at him.

“Hey,” Kurenai said, catching the worry on her friends’ faces, “We trained them for this. They’re gonna be fine.”

Asuma smiled at her, “Yeah, you’re right.”

Ibiki could tell he had said more than enough, knew that they needed to be left alone to distract themselves from worry again, “Well, I’ll leave you be.”

As he turned to leave, Kakashi followed after him.

“Hey,” Kakashi said as Ibiki paused, “If you can, update Iruka Umino on them too. Especially on mine, Kurenai, and Asuma’s teams. We’re not on the best speaking terms right now, but he deserves to know how his former students are doing.”

Ibiki nodded and went off, leaving the four Jounin to count the moments left before sunset, before their students walked into an unknown future.

* * *

Naruto grabbed at a second portion of food, but one of the chunnin distributors slapped his hand away, “One box per person!”

“But she said it might be our last meal,” Naruto whined, “I wanna stock up!”

The chunnin glared at him, “Does that look like my problem?”

Naruto gulped and backed away. He glanced behind him, where Sasuke and Sakura were already walking off, each with one box in their hand. It wouldn’t have killed them to wait for him, some teammates they were. Beside him, Naruto heard someone chuckle.

Naruto turned to see who it was; a boy probably a little bit older than him, tall and slim, with gray hair pulled back into a ponytail and round glassed over dark eyes. A Leaf Village headband was tied across his forehead, but Naruto had never seen him before.

“You’re one of the Rookie Nine that’s competing, aren’t you?” the boy asked.

Naruto raise an eyebrow at him, “Yeah, what’s it to ya?”

“Nothing, just impressed is all. Statistically, it was very unlikely that you would make it through, yet here you are,” the boy said, “I’m Kabuto, by the way.”

Naruto grinned at him, happy to know strangers were impressed by him, “Yeah, well you should expect a lot more. The name is Naruto Uzumaki, remember it.”

Kabuto laughed again, a light and clipped thing, “Well, if you want me to lay out the exact odds for you, I could.”

“What do you mean?” Naruto asked, confused.

Kabuto pushed his glasses up his nose, “Well it’s all in the numbers, really. You had a very slim chance of passing the first portion of the exam, and that chance only gets slimmer the further the exam goes on. But given that you beat small odds to start with, well some stats would say that actually increases your chance in the following portions. It’s fascinating, really.”

Naruto just looked at him, perplexed.

Kabuto smiled, “It’s simple statistical analysis. I could explain it to while we ate if you wanted to hear more.”

Naruto glanced over to where Sasuke and Sakura had been heading and saw that it wasn’t just them sitting down, but the rest of the Rookie Nine too.

A few moments before Naruto had glanced over, Ino had spotted Sasuke and Sakura sitting down together. She didn’t know where Naruto was, but she didn’t like the idea of Sasuke and Sakura getting any sort of alone time together.

“Come on guys, let’s go sit over there,” Ino said, pushing through the crowd. Shikamaru and Chouji looked at each other and then at Ino, who was making a beeline for Sasuke and Sakura. Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders and followed her, with Chouji trailing him.

At the same time this was happening, Kiba was leading Shino and Hinata to a spot, settling down in the shade of some trees. But Hinata noticed, just a few feet over, Neji’s two teammates, which meant Neji was soon to follow.

“Um,” Hinata said, her voice edgy, “Maybe we should sit with people we know?”

She looked around, eyes landing across the crowd, at the other Rookie Nine.

“We know them,” Kiba said, catching where her eyes landed, “But they’re still our competition. I think it would be better if we stuck to our own and talked strategy.”

“For once, I agree with Kiba,” Shino said dully.

Hinata knew they were right, but looked nervously around, saw Neji approaching his team. She looked back at her teammates, “Please?”

Kiba felt a fluttering in his stomach when he saw Hinata’s face, so desperate not to be there. It had been happening lately, and he had been trying to shake it off. Shino, too, felt a light pull in his stomach. It was something about when Hinata looking distressed, something they both wanted to protect.

Kiba sighed, “Sure, let’s move.”

Shino nodded in response. Hinata felt relief wash over her, happy she had such accommodating teammates. As they saw Hinata’s anxiety ease, Shino and Kiba both felt the warm spread through them, the feeling they always got when helping Hinata out.

By the time Naruto looked over, the whole crowd was there. If this guy was interested in him being one of the rookies, he bet he’d have a whole field day with all the rookies together.

“Sure,” Naruto said, responding to Kabuto’s question, and started leading the way.

Everyone was just settling in when Naruto flopped down beside Sasuke. They all looked up in surprise, and then at the guy Naruto had led their way, standing above them.

“This is Kabuto,” Naruto said, thrusting a finger in his direction, “He wants to explain something about numbers to us.”

“Hi guys,” Kabuto said, sitting down. They all looked at him apprehensively, “They’re calling you all the Rookie Nine, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, why’s that matter?” Kiba said, annoyed that there was a stranger there.

Kabuto smirked, “You’re all pretty gutsy for being fresh out of the academy.”

Ino, just as annoyed that Naruto had brought a stranger over, and even more annoyed that both and he and Naruto sat between her and Sasuke, asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m Kabuto Yakushi,” he said, “And like I was telling Naruto, your chances of success are only are only going to get slimmer from here on out.”

“What makes you think that?” Sasuke asked, curious about what this guy had to offer. Not that Sasuke would buy it, but he wanted to hear it anyway.

“It’s your first time taking the exam, right?” Kabuto asked, looking around the circle.

They all nodded hesitantly.

“Then you don’t know how to play the numbers yet,” Kabuto said seriously.

“And you do?” Sakura asked

“Well, it’s my seventh time taking the exam,” Kabuto said.

“How can it be your seventh time?” Shikamaru asked, confused by anyone who would be willing to exert that much effort.

“The exams are held twice a year, at different locations. This is the first time they’ve been held in the Leaf Village in a long time, but it’s my fourth year trying,” Kabuto explained.

“So, you not that good then?” Kiba said, with a slight chuckle, “If you’ve failed six times already.”

Kabuto shook his head, “You don’t understand. That first portion was child’s play, it always is. All it takes to get through it is some dumb luck and guts, which you all have, despite what the numbers might say. But whatever is waiting for us beyond those gates won’t be so easy.”

Each of them felt a small ripple of fear pass through them and glanced at the dense forest just beyond the gate and then at the slowly setting sun, which would mark the start of the next portion.

“What do the numbers say?” Shino asked, curious, as he always was, about the potential puzzle of figuring things out, especially if it meant their chances in this exam would increase.

Kabuto smirked, “I’d be happy to share my knowledge with my juniors.”

He reached into the pouch attached to his side and pulled out a stack of cards. He split the cards into two, turning a third of them face down in a stack, and the other half, he spread out before them. Each card had a name, and numbers, and long lines of information.

“Hey,” Chouji said, reaching into his own pouch, “Those look just like the identification cards they gave us.”

He held us his own card. A few others pulled theirs out, looking over them and then the cards Kabuto had spread in front of them.

“Close, but these have a lot more information,” Kabuto said.

He shuffled through some of the spread cards and pulled on out, “For instance, that guy’s name is Yuki Sato.”

He nodded to someone sitting a few feet away from them, who was digging into his food, “He’s from the Rain Village and this is his fifth time taking the exam. He’s 17 years old, has been out of the academy for five years, and has done 48 D-rank missions and 9 C-rank missions. He has no kekkei genkai or specialty clan skills, but is highly proficient in ninjutsu, while ranking average with taijustu and genjutsu.”

“Woah!” Naruto said, excitement in his voice, “Do me next!”

“Isn’t that a little unfair,” Hinata said softly, “That you have all this information?”

“Yeah,” Ino said, annoyed, “It seems kinda illegal too.”

“It’s also dangerous to carry around so much information,” Shino stated, imagining all the different ways those cards could be used.

“Well, the cards are encoded with my own chakra. Only I can access them,” Kabuto said. He swiped one hand over the cards and with the other, made a sign. The cards that were spread out flashed and then went blank. “And it’s not illegal. It’s all my own research.”

“You did all of this research?” Sakura said, shocked that anyone would have the time for that.

“Yeah, that seems like a lot of work,” Shikamaru said, feeling burdened even just hearing about it.

Kabuto pushed his glasses up again, “I take these exams very seriously. They say we have these exams so that we can create camaraderie between nations and boost ninja levels.”

“But what they say isn’t true?” Sasuke asked, curious now.

Kabuto nodded, “The real point of the exams is to check and track the power of neighboring nations. It’s meant to gather information, to track the numbers that matter. And once you know those numbers, you can leverage power however you want.”

Naruto had been on board at first, but now he was having trouble following, “That can’t be it, they wouldn’t hold the exams just to spy on other nations.”

“It’s exactly it,” Kabuto said.

“But we’re in an era of peace,” Sakura said, exasperated by how bleak this conversation had become.

“Just barely. The last great ninja war was only thirteen years ago, and there are smaller conflicts happening between ninja nations every day. These exams, and every other seemingly cordial event that happens between nations is just laying the strategic groundwork for future conflict.”

Everyone felt their stomachs drop for a moment, still too naive to realize that what Kabuto said was very true, only just now questioning what it meant to be a ninja in this world. But one of them had no problem at all believing Kabuto.

“Yeah, we can all agree the ninja world is full of conflict,” Sasuke said bitterly, “But you still haven’t told us what the numbers have said about us.”

“You’re proactive,” Kabuto said, eyebrow raised.

“If you’re going to be talking so much,” Sasuke said, tired of this guy, “Then you should at least make it useful.”

“Okay then,” Kabuto said, his expression turning serious. He did the same jutsu as before, and the information reappeared on the cards. He shuffled through them, and set out nine in a row, each of them with one of their names on them.

“These cards,” he said, gesturing to the third that was still turned over, “Represent those who failed the first portion of the test.”

“These,” he said, glancing to the nine in a row and the other cards spread out, “Represent those are still in the exam. We began with 153 participants but are now down to 78, that’s 26 teams. The next portion of the exam is likely designed to cut those numbers in half, at minimum. Though if trends from the past show anything, those numbers will likely be higher than half. I predict only around 20 or so participants will be left for whatever the third portion entails, perhaps even less. Beyond that, I’d need to do an analysis based on who was left.”

“But the nine of you are very interesting,” Kabuto said, shuffling the rest of the cards away so only the nine that represented them were left, “At first glance, you look like a normal set of rookie genin, but when you look a little closer, things get more complex.”

“First off, there’s an anomaly in the missions. You’ve all performed the average amount of D-rank missions for genins at your level, but it looks like everyone also went on a mission that was initially marked as D-rank, but later classified as much higher. Your missions were later classified as A-rank,” Kabuto explained, glancing at Team 8 and Team 10. Then he turned to Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke, “And your mission was later ranked as S-rank.”

“Yet you all survived,” Kabuto said, looking around them, “Survived missions that much stronger ninjas surely would have died on, which suggests you have some formidable skill. And it’s not a stretch when you think about it. Two of you have dojustu eyes; five of you have special clan abilities. One team is part a long legacy of strong ninja alliances. Another one of you has the highest test scores the academy has seen in decades, intelligence beyond compare. And one of you can do the multi-shadow clone jutsu technique in mass quantities that even the strongest of ninjas can’t achieve.”

“Oh, that’s me,” Naruto said with a sheepish grin.

Kabuto chuckled, and went on, “Statistics from all previous exams show that rookie teams are rarely submitted to the exam and when they are, they almost never pass the first portion of the exam, let alone the second. Based on everything I know, the likelihood of any of you making it through this next portion is so small it shouldn’t even be counted. But then there’s the theory that every time something unlikely happens, the likelihood of the next unlikely thing increases. The fact that all of you made it through the first portion of the exams means your chances of making it through the next portion could potentially be higher, even if marginally so.”

As Kabuto explained, each of them took in what he said, realizing the ways that the ninja world perceived them. It wasn’t something they had thought about too deeply, how these numbers and traits and skills would define them, would determine what other ninjas thought their chances were. It was a sudden and strange realization, to understand they were perceived on a larger level.

“So, you’re saying we have a higher chance of getting through the next portion?” Chouji said, trying to put the pieces together in his head.

“Only marginally so.”

“But not statistically impossible?” Shino asked, having followed the explanation clearly.

“Not statistically impossible, no,” Kabuto said, “But very unlikely.”

“But still,” Shikamaru said, getting strangely interested in it as Kabuto spoke more and more, “It’s possible that we could be within those 20 or so ninjas that you think would make it through the next portion?”

“You’ve been lucky so far,” Kabuto said, “So if that keeps up…”

“But you’ve already said it isn’t just luck,” Sasuke said, interrupting. The more Kabuto spoke, the more Sasuke saw his potential paths of getting to the very end of this thing, “Your cards list all the different ways we’re talented, right?”

Kabuto nodded.

“Yeah, we got Hinata’s eyes and mine and Shino’s clan abilities, we’ll be set,” Kiba said. He looked at everyone else, “And you all have whatever it is that he said, I forgot.”

“Possibility isn’t a sure thing, though,” Kabuto said, “You’re an interesting set of rookies, for sure, but that doesn’t guarantee you’ll make it through this next portion of the exam.”

“Oh, screw that!” Naruto said, frustrated by Kabuto’s lack of belief, but also frustrated by how confusing all the numbers were, “I don’t know about everyone else here, but there’s no way I’m going to let this next portion take me out. I told you I’m Naruto Uzumaki! And you’re gonna remember my name!”

Naruto, as always, was Naruto, and everyone, as always, acted accordingly to it, rolling their eyes and shaking their heads and chuckling in good measures. But then a shadow appeared over them.

“What’s going on over here?”

They all looked up, at a female ninja was standing above them. She was tall, with dark hair and eyes, and a mean expression on her face. A Sound Village headband was wrapped around her head.

“Move!” Kabuto yelled, jumping up. There was a flash and a pair of shuriken flashed through the air, hitting the ground and pinning a few of Kabuto’s cards to the dirt. The Rookie Nine jumped back, seconds after Kabuto reacted.

They barely saw the girl smile before another Sound Ninja appeared, hunched over and head wrapped almost completely in bandages. He threw a punch at Kabuto, but Kabuto dodged it, quick as lightening. But then, the strangest thing happened, despite avoiding the punch and being out of the guy’s distance now, his glasses shattered.

The Rookie Nine were all tense and others in the crowd had started to look up as well, panicked by what was happening.

But Kabuto looked calm, he pulled off his glasses, “So I see, even though I dodged your hit, it’s a sound attack, you were able to swipe my glasses.”

The Sound Ninja girl giggled, and the bandaged guy looked darkly at Kabuto. The stare-off lasted barely a second before Kabuto fell to the ground, clutching his stomach and coughing up blood.

“What the hell!” Naruto yelled, running to Kabuto.

The other rookies were unsure of what to do, stood in place.

“My sound attack cuts deeper than that,” the bandaged guy said, his voice dark and deep, chuckling a little. The fur cape in on his back fluttered as the girl jumped beside him. But then another ninja appeared, jumping between the Rookie Nine. All of them startled as the guy bent down, picking up the cards the shuriken had pierced. For a second, they were worried, knowing it was their own information on the cards that were still out, but then saw that the cards were blank. Somehow, Kabuto had the time to deactivate them before the attack.

Just as quickly as the guy appeared between them, he jumped up again and joined the other two, who were obviously his teammates.

“You gonna tell us how to unlock these little cards?” he said, his voice frustrated.

Kabuto seemed to be recovering, and Naruto helped him up.

“They only respond to my chakra,” Kabuto said, his voice was weak.

“Oh,” the girl said haughtily, cracking her knuckles, “We can arrange that.”

With a sharp yell and a puff of smoke, Anko, their proctor, was suddenly there, standing between the Sound ninjas and Kabuto.

“Now, now, now,” Anko said, her voice full of humor, “I can appreciate a good fight as much as anyone, but I think I made it very clear that right now, we’re resting. You can save that fighting for the next portion of the exam.”

The Sound ninjas said nothing, just glared at her.

“If you have a problem with that, you’re gonna have to go through me,” Anko bit harshly. Without saying anything, the Sound ninjas dispersed. Anko grinned as they left.

“You!” she said, turning to Kabuto, “Go back to your own team, and stop showing off those fucking cards. You’re just begging to make yourself a target.”

Kabuto nodded, gathered up his cards, gave the Rookie Nine a defeated look, and disappeared into the crowd.

“And you,” Anko said, looking at Naruto, who was watching Kabuto disappear, “They probably wouldn’t have even noticed that idiot’s cards if you hadn’t been such a loudmouth. I suggest you keep quiet and eat your food.”

“But—” Naruto began, but quieted when he felt a harsh pinch at his cheek. He raised his hands, feeling a small cut, blood seeping down his face.

Anko looked at his cheek with a smile on her far. It had been her, and he hadn’t even seen her move. “Now, I think I’ve made myself clear.”

Naruto gulped and scurried to where the rest of the Rookie Nine were standing.

“We only have about fifteen minutes until sunset!” Anko shouted, loud enough for the whole crowd to hear, “I expect no more disturbances until then!”

She disappeared in a puff of smoke and the genin all looked around, trying to see where she had landed. After a moment, when they still couldn’t find her, they turned back to their food and mumbled conversations.

It was a lot of take in for the Rookie Nine – the harsh proctor who seemed to have no qualms about hurting them, the sudden attack from the Sound Village ninjas, and Kabuto, who had sent their head jumbling with numbers. They ate their food in silence, thinking about it all.

What they didn’t know was just how closely Fate and Chance were watching them, had watched the whole interaction with Kabuto. Fate rolled her eyes at the many different times Kabuto insisted the Rookie Nine wouldn’t make it through, didn’t know how often the least likely thing was the Fated thing. Chance was amused by it, by this boy whose own path was determined so much by Chance’s musings, trying to figure out the chances of others. The numbers mattered, Fate and Chance knew, but they also knew they themselves mattered more. 

* * *

As promised, Anko called them to attention fifteen minutes later, the last flecks of sunlight streaming over her face. In the shallow dark that began creeping in, the forest behind the tall gates looked worse than ever, the trees taller than anyone had ever seen, the shadows darker than eyes would take, and what sounded like an undercurrent of whispers began to dance in the wind.

“Welcome to the location of your second test,” Anko said, a wicked smile on her face, “It’s the 44th Battle Training Zone, also known as the Forest of Death.”

Just as Anko said it, a harsh wind blew threw the air, carrying whispers and cold that creeped into the crowd’s bones. There was a mummering throughout the genin, the forest that had seemed so unimposing during their meal suddenly looked so vicious.

“Soon enough, you’re all gonna find out why we call it that,” Anko said, enjoying the tension she was stirring up.

“If you remember, when you turned in your paperwork this morning, it included a consent form. Some of you may not make it out of this forest, and if you’re standing here, that means you’ve already given us permission to put you at the risk. There’s no backing out now. The easy way out began and ended with Ibiki’s last question.”

A ripple of fear moved through the crowd. The day’s events had felt so long and dragging, and even though they had only turned in their forms and officially started the Chunnin Exams just a few hours before, it felt like ages ago. They could hardly remember signing a consent form.

“The second portion of the exam is designed to tax every one of your survival skills,” Anko said.

Lee and TenTen looked at Neji, whose lips turned up in a small smile. He had been right in his predication about survival skills.

“The terrain of the 44th Battle Training Zone if full of a thick forest and a deep river. There are also wild animals, both edible and poisonous vegetation, and a huge variety of hidden traps. At the center is a locked lookout tower, located exactly 10 miles from each of the 44 entrances that follow the perimeter of the gate.”

“You’ll be spending the next five days within the expanse of this terrain and will participate in an anything goes battle to get your hands on these scrolls,” Anko explained, holding out too scrolls, one with a kanji for heaven and another with a kanji for earth.

“When you say anything goes,” the Sound Village girl from earlier spoke up, “You actually mean anything?”

Anko chuckled, “I thought you would be interested in that. Why do you think we got you to sign the consent forms?”

The mummering in the crowd stirred up, everyone suddenly realizing that it meant. Anyone standing beside them was now their enemy. They would have to survive five days surrounded by those who wanted to kill them.

“Quiet!” Anko shouted, with a laugh still in her voice, “We haven’t even gotten to the fun part yet.”

“You’ll be fighting for both a Heaven scroll and Earth scroll. In order to successfully complete this portion of the exam your entire team will need to be present at the tower with both scrolls by the end of the five days.”

“Before you begin, half of you will be given an Earth scroll, while the other half will be given a Heaven scroll. Altogether, there will be 26 teams participating in this portion of the exam, with the intention of going after the scroll you don’t have. This means, at minimum, at least half of you standing here will fail the next portion of the exam. Though, I bet you’ll make it more fun than that,” Anko finished, a smile on her face.

The Rookie Nine remembered what Kabuto had said, how the next portion of the exam was likely designed to take out half of the remaining teams at minimum. He was right, and he was probably right about everything he said too.

“It’s part survival and part endurance, a grueling test to measure how well you perform behind enemy lines,” Anko explained, “But I also encourage you to imagine it as a test of creativity too. As I said, anything goes.”

Most in the crowd were felt more and more tense by the moment. While their last proctor, Ibiki, had been intimidating, at least he seemed good intentioned. But this proctor, well, she seemed to be outright encouraging chaos. And for those in the crowd who weren’t scared of it, for those who delighted in the thrill of anything goes, it was inspiring.

“Of course, there are some ways to get disqualified,” Anko said.

“The first is simple, if all three members can’t make it to the Tower with both scrolls by the end of five days, you’re disqualified. If a team loses a member, or if a member becomes incapacitated and cannot continue, you’re disqualified too. So, remember that you’re not just protecting your own ass out there, but also your teammates’ asses.”

“But most importantly, none of you – and I mean absolutely none of you – may look at the contents of the scroll until you’ve reached the tower,” Anko explained. “There are times when ninjas will be asked to carry secret documents. The scroll rule is to test your integrity.”

Naruto rolled his eyes. He was scared, sure, but he also knew that he and Sakura and Sasuke could survive this. But he couldn’t stand the way the new proctor was being so haughty.

“Doesn’t sound too hard to me,” Naruto murmured, hoping on Sasuke and Sakura could hear. But they were close enough to the front of the crowd and Anko had sharp enough ears that she caught it too.

She looked over at Naruto, sending a glare his way. It was the same loudmouth as earlier, the kid dressed in bright orange. And hmm, the whole team, she recognized them as Kakashi’s team. Of course, it would be his team, with that Nine-Tailed fox brat, and the little Uchiha, and that brainiac girl. They all probably thought they were something special.

“You’re a tough guy, huh?” Anko said in Naruto’s direction.

Naruto gulped, realizing the proctor had heard him. Sasuke and Sakura shook their heads, wondering if there was a single adult Naruto didn’t annoy.

“Yeah, I can handle whatever you throw at me,” Naruto yelled, trying to put on some bravado. This proctor annoyed him, but also scared him too.

Anko laughed. This kid made it too easy, “Yeah, like you handled that kunai I threw at you earlier.”

Naruto’s face dropped, remembering the burning, shallow cut still on his cheek.

“Let me tell you something, kid,” Anko said when Naruto looked up again, “Tough guys like you always end up spilling their blood all over this forest. I suggest you stop the talk and save all the energy for your next five days.”

“You’re jus—” Naruto began, annoyed by how easily she was riling him up.

“I don’t want to hear it,” Anko said, interrupting him, “Unless you want me to mark up that other cheek.”

Naruto let out a frustrated sigh and gritted his teeth. Sakura and Sasuke shot him glares, looks that he recognized as them telling him to be quiet.

“Anyway,” Anko started, loud enough for the rest of the crowd to hear, “Just like we were kind enough to give you a final meal, we’re not sending you in there completely empty handed. Each team will receive a backpack with a few basic survival supplies. The backpack will also contain your team’s scroll. After you’ve picked up a backpack, go to your team’s assigned entrance – which you can find on the fifth line of your identification card – and we’ll let you in. You have ten minutes.”

As she said this, the last trickles of daylight left the sky, the sun completely taken by the horizon. A dark shadow flushed over the forest and across the awaiting genin, haunted whispers and fear and excitement and everything else suddenly working its way back into their bones.

* * *

At first there was a rush to pick up the backpacks and scrolls, but the line was sorted through quickly.

Hinata had volunteered to grab her team’s scrolls and supplies when she saw that Naruto was grabbing his for his team.

“Hi, Naruto,” she said softly, as he fell in step beside her.

“Oh, hi Hinata,” Naruto said, not realizing who it was until he saw the flash of Hinata’s silverly eyes, “Can you believe how scary this proctor is?”

The line moved forward. Hinata and Naruto moved along with it.

Hinata glanced around, making sure Anko was far away, “Yeah, she’s a bit much. I’m sorry she cut your face like that.”

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to remember it, “Doesn’t hurt that much.”

Hinata smiled at that and Naruto felt a fluttering in his stomach. At least someone seemed to think he was impressive. They reached the front of the line, each of them grabbing a pack.

Naruto turned around, “Well, um, I hope I don’t see you out there.”

Hinata was confused for a second and then she realized what Naruto was saying, what he meant. She felt her cheeks burn red, “Yeah, well, I hope I don’t see you either, Naruto. But good luck, okay?”

Naruto nodded and turned to go, walking briskly toward Sasuke and Sakura. Hinata watched him from a moment and then turned to go herself but bumped into someone as she turned around.

The person let out a sigh of frustration and Hinata felt her stomach drop, Neji’s glare boring into her. It had been a few years since she last saw him, but the resentment on his face was still the same.

“He..he…hello Neji,” Hinata said, her voice a frantic nervous stutter.

Neji looked her up and down, considering her. She looked as meek as ever and that annoyed him to no end.

“I heard your father kicked you out,” Neji said coldly, “Decided you were too weak to lead the clan, decided that your little sister, who’s barely grown out of babyhood, would be a better leader instead.”

Hinata felt a cold wrench in her stomach. Of course, Neji knew because everyone in the branch family knew, and the shame of it spilled over Hinata, just as it had been, again and again, every day since her father kicked her out months ago. But then she tried to remind herself that this was better, about the progress she had made, about how happy and light and free she felt in every moment now, compared to what once was.

“Hanabi is eight years old,” Hinata said, voice still shaky, “but she’s talented. She’ll make a good leader someday.”

Neji shook his head, looking at her with disdain. He hated her so much, so absolutely. She didn’t even have to look into his eyes to feel it radiating off of him.

“I don’t understand the main branch,” Neji spat, “They’re rather have a child leading than someone with actual talent, all for the sake of legacy.”

“And you,” he huffed. The tone of his voice made Hinata shrink in on herself, her stomach feeling tighter and tighter.

“You’re just a miserable as always, acting like you’ve been beaten when you’ve ben treated like a princess your whole life. It’s pathetic, it’s—”

“Hey!” a harsh call cut Neji off.

He and Hinata looked up to see where the voice had come from. It was the Sand Village girl, the one with the fan strapped to her back.

She was giving Neji a deep glare – “Could you move the line along instead of continuing whatever tortured thing you were going on about?”

Neji rolled his eyes at her and pushed past Hinata, deciding it wasn’t his problem.

Temari turned back to Hinata. There was something about this girl, a weird recognition she felt. She remembered feeling it too, hours earlier, when Kankuro almost started a fight before the exams, the looks she and the girl shared. It was like she understood her somehow.

“You always let him talk to you like that?” Temari asked.

Hinata felt the same thing that Temari did, some deep-down feeling that this girl, as harsh as she was, understood Hinata, “Actually, we don’t usually talk at all.”

“Well next time he talks to you like that, I suggest you beat his ass,” Temari said, knowing this was easier said than done. Knowing just how much fear ruled over her own life, how it had every thing to do with the two strangers who had caught her just before she left for the exam, how she was burying her fear every second, because every second that passed was a moment closer to what she hoped would be a final moment.

Hinata didn’t really know how to respond to that, but knew that she wanted to please this girl, that there was a strange part of her that wanted this girl to have faith in her.

“Okay, I will,” Hinata said, not knowing the irony that this statement would later prove.

Hinata nodded and left, and Temari collected her team’s backpack. The rest of the line dispersed quickly and soon; all the teams were standing in front of their assigned gates.

At entrance twenty-six, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino were all breathing shallowly, nerves running rampant as they waited for the gates to open. A mere ten feet away from them was entrance twenty-seven, where the three ninjas from the Sand Village stood. Shikamaru glanced at the girl again, noticing the way she seemed to stand apart from her teammates, like her own constellation. His stomach fluttered.

But there was something else in his stomach too, a burrowing feeling of darkness and malice, like he and his teammates were on the precipice of something horrible.

“Hey guys,” Shikamaru said, catching his teammates’ attention, “As soon as we get in, let’s get as far away from them as possible.”

He raised his eyebrows in the direction of the Sand ninjas. Ino and Chouji understood and nodded.

At entrance twenty-seven, Temari was still thinking about the brief snippet of conversation with that girl, at what she herself was planning on doing at the end of this. This portion of the exam was just another obstacle to make it through to that ending. And based on the expression on Gaara’a face, the dark hunger she saw stirring between his eyes, it wasn’t going to be an easy one. She’d need to brace herself for it all.

Wrapped around the curve of the perimeter, at entrance forty, Hinata, Shino, and Kiba were making a plan. Shino’s dad had apparently helped contribute to this training ground a few years ago by breeding a special species of poisonous slugs. The idea was to find them and use them to their advantage, trap a team with a Heaven scroll to pair alongside their own Earth scroll.

“But what if the team that falls into one of our traps are our friends?” Hinata asked, her mind on Naruto and even on the Sand village girl who had just shown her a bit of kindness.

“We don’t have friends in here,” Shino said, his voice serious.

“If we’re going to pass this,” Kiba said, “You, Me, Shino, and Akamaru are the only ones that matter.”

Hinata fought against the sinking feeling in her gut, she knew they were right, “Okay.”

Far away from them, at entrance ten, TenTen and Rock Lee were planning strategies. Neji was suspiciously quiet, considering he was usually the most involved in their strategic planning, the natural leader of their squad.

“What’s up?” TenTen asked, noticing the silence.

“Nothing,” Neji said tersely.

“You know, if something’s wrong, you can tell us,” Lee said brightly, “We can only work best as a team when we’re open and honest with each other. And considering we’re about to face a task that involves a lot of teamwork—”

Neji interrupted him, his eyes flashing as he activated his Byakugan, “Please, this will be child’s play.”

The whole forest lit up for him, its network of chakras and dangers and the burning life forces of all the other teams stationed around them. His eyes told him the forest’s secrets, and he knew they would be fine.

Near the original entrance, Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto stood, ready to go. Somehow, they ended up at entrance one and this made Naruto more amped. He was bouncing up and down, antsy for the gates to open.

“Naruto, calm down,” Sasuke said, “You can’t just go rushing in there however you want. We need strategy just as much as strength to survive these next few days.”

“Oh please, this is gonna be easy,” Naruto said. He was a little scared, but since talking to Hinata in the line, he had started to feel more and more excited. This wasn’t a written test. This was fighting and guts and everything else he felt like he excelled in. “The way I see it, we get a scroll tonight, find the tower, and then camp out by there for the rest of the time.”

“Naruto, didn’t you hear the proctor?” Sakura said, “Anything goes, that means they’ll probably be teams who go to the tower first, and hide, waiting for teams with both scrolls to show up.”

Sasuke hadn’t even considered that and he was struck, like he had been a lot lately, but just how smart Sakura was.

“Oh, you really think people are gonna do that?” Naruto asked, confused.

“This portion of the exam has basically no rules. To strategize, you need to think about how all the things that you would normally think of as rules will be broken,” Sakura said, having already thought of a variety of different scenarios where people would push the anything goes rule to its limits.

“Exactly,” Sasuke said, having thought of a few scenarios himself, “We don’t want to be involved in the potential chaos that could involve. Our best strategy would be getting an Earth scroll to match our Heaven scroll off a weak team as quickly as we can, because the weakest teams will all likely be disqualified within the first few hours or so. Then, once we’ve secured the right scroll, hide out until the five days are over.”

Sakura nodded and smiled, just a little, “Good plan, Sasuke.”

The plan sounded boring to Naruto, but then again, sometimes boring was safe, “Sure, I guess that’s what we’ll do.”

Thiers weren’t the only conversations happening. All around the perimeter of the Forest of Death, hearts were pounding, and anxieties were risings. Some teams were excited, thinking of all the different ways they could disqualify other opponents. Teams were making plans and imagining everything that would happen over the next five days.

Of course, none of their imaginations could actually capture what would happen next. The next five days belong to the strands of Fate, Chance, Space, Time, Life, and Death. And it was a complex pattern, more so than any Chunnin Exam had ever been. And it was starting in 3, 2, 1…

The entrances opened, and everyone ran.


	17. (Here) The Forest of Death - Part One

In the forest, they faced a night blacker than they had ever seen. They ran, and stopped, until they couldn’t see anymore. For a moment, all was quiet, but then the noise began. The harsh call of the wind shaking the trees, the sounds like lost whispers winding between their ears, the hiss and shout and groans of all the creatures who stirred in the forest, and of course, the screams, victims of the teams who wasted no time.

More than a few people were already finding different ways to be creative, to make this forest work for them as soon as they entered it. The first twelve hours of that dark night were the longest, Chance and Death and Fate and everything in between casting so many strands, weaving so many tight-knit patterns, washed in blood alongside each other.

It would take too much to move through it all, all the work that happened during the first night and into the early hours of morning, as night melted into visions that looked so much harsher in the light of day.

These are just a few of the stories, there are many more to come.

* * *

The first thing that Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji did was run. They ran for miles, until their breath felt like it had left them. With the thick canopy of trees overhead, they could barely see ahead of them, and barely see each other. They had no idea if they were running straight ahead or in circles.

But eventually, Shikamaru stopped. The feeling in his stomach, the strange unease when he looked at the small red-headed Sand village boy, had finally disappeared. Like they had final got away.

He looked around, his eyes adjusting a little, Ino and Chouji shadows around him, between hints of the rising moon between the tall branches above. This is good, he thought. The deeper it got into night, the more the moon would rise, and the more potential light they would have.

“Let’s look into the pack,” Shikamaru said.

“Look being the operative word,” Ino said, her voice dry and sarcastic.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and pulled the pack off his back and dumped its contents out. It looked like basic ninja supplies – a few kunai and shuriken, some medical equipment (salves and bandages), a bare bones map of the forest, and of course, their scroll, its Heaven kanji visible in the dull moonlight.

“No food?” Chouji said in disbelief.

“She said it was going to be our last meal,” Ino said, not even remembering that had been. It felt like sunset had been both five minutes and several hours away.

“I know,” Chouji said, “But I just thought it would be like the packs we got during real missions – overloaded with food and other supplies.”

“It’s a survival test,” Shikamaru said, frustration clear in his voice, “Of course they’re giving us bare bones supplies, just to make it more troubling for us.”

He didn’t know how he felt about this test. On one hand, he knew now was the time to act, not complain, but this was just so much. The raised stakes between the first portion of the exam and the second seemed impossibly big. And Shikamaru couldn’t quite shake all the numbers that Kabuto guy had put into his head, how little chance they had of making it through, but also the other part too, the part about them being a unique set of rookies.

“We can forage for food,” Ino said, sensing how uneasy both Chouji and Shikamaru were. She couldn’t have them messing this up now; they had only just begun.

“Didn’t she say that this forest was full of poisonous food, though?” Chouji asked, remembering that, and the many other warnings they had been given about this place.

“Yes,” Ino said, knowing Chouji needed more encouragement, “But we have some basic foraging skills. Remember the days at the academy where Iruka taught us about survival tactics, you were always really good about remembering the food-related parts.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Chouji said, a smile flashing on his face. The memories of the charts of edible and non-edible plants appeared back in his head. He glanced around, and in the growing moonlight, already recognized some plants.

Shikamaru looked at Ino, could see what she was doing. It wasn’t often, but sometimes, Ino could be the most proactive of the three, the one to push them when they needed it. She was doing it right now and Shikamaru needed to get with the picture.

“Shikamaru,” Ino said, turning to him, “Do you think it’d be safe to make a fire? We need more light to figure out that map.”

Just like with Chouji, it was the push he needed, “I think we can risk a fire, and I think I remember Iruka’s lessons on how to make one without a flint.”

He gathered their meager supplies back into the pack. He grabbed the scroll and then looked at Ino, “I think you should hold unto this.”

Into grabbed it, confused. She and Chouji had been getting more than comfortable with Shikamaru acting as their de facto leader. It just made sense. And it would make more sense if he was the one holding unto the scroll.

“Why?”

“Because you’re strong, but people wouldn’t expect it,” Shikamaru said.

“Excuse me,” Ino said, suddenly annoyed. She was the only one who had made any type of helpful suggestion so far, yet Shikamaru was implying something else. “What do you mean people wouldn’t expect it?”

“I mean…” Shikamaru said, his words trailing off. He didn’t know how to explain this without Ino getting annoyed.

Chouji spoke up, knowing he needed to be gentle about this, “I think he means how you’re a girl and everything.”

“What does me being a girl have to do with anything?” Ino asked, her voice tense.

Chouji gulped and looked to Shikamaru for help.

“Look,” Shikamaru said, his voice exasperated, “We know you’re strong, okay? It doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or not. But a lot of those other ninjas look like the type who assume kunoichi are weak. If you hold unto the scroll, we’ll know it’s protected by someone strong, but the other teams won’t. Besides, you’ve been making good calls, about the foraging and the fire.”

In the dull moonlight, he could see her face turn up into her signature smirk, “That’s what I thought.”

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. She’d be insufferable now, just because he couldn’t get his mind off the numbers quick enough to say the same things about Iruka’s survival training that she did.

Ino secured the scroll in the pouch on her side and they set about making something of a camp. Chouji foraged some plants and Shikamaru gathered up some kindling for the fire. Ino pointed out a space under the roots of a giant tree, raised up from the ground. It would give them some coverage.

“You’re full of ideas tonight,” Shikamaru said.

“You’re not the only smart one,” Ino said, satisfied by the fact that she was the one with the initiative right now. Of course, on the inside, she knew just how much of that was on there because of her own fear. She just wanted to feel safe, or as safe as they could in this current situation. And if her teammates weren’t going to have any ideas on how to do it, she would.

“Yeah, yeah,” Shikamaru said, not sure if he liked having the burden of being the ideas guy taken away from him or not.

But after a while, they were settled into the uplifted roots, a small fire burning, and a handful of berries on their stomach. When they pulled the map out, the lit flames casting what felt like the first real light of the night, Shikamaru felt it coming back to him.

Kabuto and his numbers didn’t matter. It was him and his teammates, right here, that did. So he pulled out the map and based on the entrance that they started at and the route they took, decided where they were at, and came up with a plan.

It wasn’t the most strategic plan, not really, but it was the one they had. They planned to hide out until dawn, sneak up on an unsuspecting team with in an Earth scroll and take it, in the early hours while everyone was likely trying to take a little bit of rest, since most were either too amped or too scared to sleep during the night – they certainly were. None of them had someone with special eyes like the other two Rookie teams, they couldn’t make use of the night like they could. Besides, shadows worked better during the day; Chouji needed to eat a lot more to make sure he had enough chakra stores for any potential fight; and there was no way Ino was willing to leave her body behind in the night, even if her mind could do work during that time. For now, they waited.

They were naive, really, to think they could make a plan. To think the Forest of Death would wait for them, would wait until their skills and bodies and ideas were safe in the warm daylight. Soon after they made their plan, the moon high and bright in a dark sky, they heard another team approach.

Shikamaru was the first to notice, nodded for Chouji and Ino to push themselves further in the roots, to stay hidden. The fire wasn’t an issue – they had put it out once they were done with the map, once the moonlight was bright enough. As long as the ninjas didn’t turn around or look too low, they wouldn’t be seen.

“Can we please take a break?” one of the ninjas asked, frustration in his voice. 

In the moonlight, between the tangle of roots, they saw a team that looked a few years older than them, with Rain Village headbands. Two of the three had straw hats, and all of them looked to be carrying long objects along their backs.

“No,” one of his teammates replied, taller than the other two boys, “We’ve been running for hours and still haven’t seen anyone. I want to get a Heaven scroll as soon as possible.”

Shikamaru felt a nudge at his side, it was Ino. She gestured to third ninja; an Earth scroll was hanging from his belt.

“Yeah, maybe because neither of you are good ninjas,” the third one said, the shortest but most lively looking of the three.

“Man, shut up,” the first one said.

“Yeah, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” the tall one said.

The shortest one shrugged and leaned against the tree, only around ten feet away from them, “I’m just saying, we know who the real talent is around here.”

“Just because you figured out an easy way to cheat on the first test doesn’t mean shit.”

“Yeah man, stop acting like you’re the best,” the taller one said. He approached the shorter ninja and pulled the earth scroll off his belt, “You shouldn’t even have this.”

“Yeah, cause I should have it,” the other one said, approaching the two closest to the tree and grabbing the scroll for himself.

They continued to bicker, making fun of each other and ripping the scroll back and forth from each other’s hand. Shikamaru knew the plan, knew that his team would be stronger in the daylight. But how could they resist a chance like this? He turned his teammates, who both gave him determined grins. He turned back, and then jumped up from between the roots.

Shikmaru very rarely made moves without planning them first, so this was new, jumping into the middle of three ninjas without a plan.

But it worked, the surprise and speed catching them off guard.

“I’ll be taking that,” he said, a smile on his face as he grabbed the Earth scroll from the ninja’s hand.

“What the hell!” the ninja shouted, looking at the empty space between his fingers where the scroll had just been.

“I don’t think so!” the shorter one yelled, grabbing Shikamaru by his leg as he jumped up, whipping him into the ground. Shikamaru took the brunt of the hit but kept the scroll firm in his hand.

“That scroll is ours now!” Ino yelled, coming from out of nowhere, pulling the shorter ninja away from Shikamaru before he could hit again. She kicked him back and he slammed against his teammate, falling into the same mess of roots they had been hiding in earlier. There was a thud and the tallest member slammed into both of them, Chouj rubbing his hands.

They recovered quickly, but Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji were faster, taking form before them.

“You want this?” Shikamaru said, holding their Earth scroll tightly in his hands.

The ninjas didn’t say anything, just rushed their way. Team 10 dispersed, Shikamaru faking a toss, pretending he was throwing the scroll to Chouji, while he really handed it off to Ino, who pocketed it quickly. They followed the bait, diving on Chouji, whose fists grew in an instant and slammed them together, dizzying them but not fully knocking them out.

The taller of the ninja dived toward Shikamaru, pulling out one of the things attached to his back. An umbrella popped open, wide and protective, blocking any hits Shikamaru tried to lay on him. The end of the umbrella was sharpened to a stiff point, jabbing at Shikamaru. He dodged as quickly as he could, saw out of the corner of his eye that the other two were recovering, moving toward Chouji, with pointed umbrellas of their own.

And just as he thought, no one was looking at Ino. Just as Shikamaru had guessed, the other ninjas would doubt Ino. Besides, Shikamaru knew that Ino had something big on her plate, something she hadn’t yet shared with them yet. He couldn’t tell why, but he just knew.

He dodged another jab from the taller ninja, looked around frantically, for enough moonlight to create a shadow, but the forest was too dense, the light too dull, it wouldn’t work. Behind him, he heard Chouji’s enlarged fists slam into the ground, but saw the other two ninjas dodge them.

Ino took it in for a second, the ninjas attacking her teammates and not her – and yet she was the one with both scrolls. The ninja world and its sexism, it really would cost them today. They had no idea what Ino was planning.

She took a deep breath, made the new hand sign, the motions she had perfected in recent training sessions with her father, and let her chakra move.

All at once, all three Rain ninjas seized up, their bodies moving in quick jerking motions away from Chouji and Shikamaru. Their bodies took awkward steps toward each other and formed a small circle, reached their umbrellas out, the sharpened ends to each other’s necks. Their faces looked panicked, their mouths agape as if trying to say something.

Chouji and Shikamaru glanced toward Ino, saw that she was doing a hand sign they hadn’t seen before. Saw the struggle on her face, sweat beginning at her temples.

“I can’t hold it for long,” she said, her voice a tight whisper is Shikamaru’s direction, “do something.”

Shikamaru’s head flooded with possibilities and questions. Ino was controlling their bodies, but not for long. And if she made them move with enough force, they would all kill each other, right now, sharpened ends of the umbrellas into their throats. And he knew Ino would do it too, if he asked. But he didn’t want to ask.

He walked toward the circle of ninjas, their bodies twitching and eyes frantic.

“Me teammate back there,” Shikamaru said, trying to sound cool and confident, “the one you didn’t even glance at; she’s pretty powerful.”

“In fact, she has the power to end all of you right here, by your own hands,” Shikamaru continued. Behind him, he sensed Ino smiling and saw, ever so perceptibly, their bodies move closer to each other, the sharp ends touching each of their throats.

“But I’m gonna have some mercy on you today, gonna tell her to let you free. But only if you make a deal with me – you let us keep the Earth scroll and you head out of sight. Or else we’ll find you and finish the job,” Shikamaru finished, hoping he sounded as intimidating as he hoped.

“Blink if you take the deal,” Chouji said, in a voice Shikamaru could tell was his attempt at being tough.

All of the ninjas frantically blinked. As soon as they did, motion came back to their bodies, fear and relief intermingling on their faces.

“Let’s get the hell out of here!” the shortest one yelled, running away. The others followed and they all jumped off a ledge just beyond the trees.

“Ino!” Chouji yelled, running forward and catching her as she fell. Shikamaru ran to her too, both of them setting her gently on the ground.

She was cold and clammy, but opened her eyes and said weakly, “Hey guys.”

“That was so cool Ino!” Chouji said, with bounce in his voice, “What was it called?”

Ino sat up slowly, still feeling weak, “Mind Body Disturbance Jutsu, lets me take over people’s bodies. Dad thought it would be good for me to know, taught it to me just before the exam. I’ve never done it with three people before.”

Shikamaru smirked, just a little, “You really saved our asses.”

“Yeah, so much for kunoichi not being strong,” Ino said, her voice full of mirth.

“You’re never going to let us live that one down, are you?” Shikamaru asked.

Ino laughed in response and after a moment, Shikamaru and Chouji did too. They had gotten through the hardest part of this portion of the exam – getting a scroll from another team, and it had been surprisingly easy. For a moment, they let themselves feel the joy of this, feel how happy they were that Ino had stepped up for them, feel relief that Rain Ninjas only just looked tough.

But then they heard screams coming from over the ridge… 

* * *

Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara were resting for a moment, at Temari’s insistence, when a team from the Rain Village fell in their path, jumped from a ridge overhead, landing sloppily in front of them.

Gaara turned to them and in the soft light of the moonlight, Temari could see the hunger in his eyes. She sighed; they had only been in the forest for a few hours at most and it had already been so much.

When the entrances first opened, Gaara issued a sharp command, “Follow me.”

Temari and Kankuro knew better than to refuse to listen to him and followed along, diving into a darkness they had never known before. It occurred to Temari that none of them never really knew true dark before. The skies in the desert were vast and open and so full of stars that even the darkest nights were full of light.

She remembered, especially, those long cold nights a few weeks ago. Laying on the flat sand, still hot from the day’s sun. The night sky was so full of stars she thought they would spill over and drown her in their light. Part of her wished they had. Another part of her knew that she couldn’t think like that, knew what she left behind that night in the desert and what promises she had made.

But now she was here, in a forest so dense the treetops shut out the sky and the stars and everything else.

They found another team in minutes, someone with the scroll they needed. She and Kankuro offered to help, but Gaara silenced them. It was over in the minutes; they barely had time to scream. The scroll was theirs. She thought it would be over then, thought they could make their way to the tower and be done.

But Gaara wasn’t done. They didn’t even need the scroll from the second team they found, but that wasn’t the point. That wasn’t the reason that Gaara found them. He took his time with the second, and as their begging scratched itself inside her mind, she turned to Kankuro.

“This is too much,” she whispered, “We already have both scrolls.”

Kankuro shook his head, his voice just as low, “Just think about it this way, he’s making less competition for the upcoming portions.”

Temari opened her mouth to say something but paused. He was right, technically, but she just didn’t like it.

So, she let Gaara have his fun and eventually a bright moon spilled enough light between the tight branches, disturbing the pitch black of the night. In the dull cast of the light she could see the shock on the new ninjas’ faces. They hadn’t expected to meet anyone else, and, she guessed, they had just been in some type of situation. They looked flustered and scared but like they were trying not to show it.

“So, Sand Village ninjas,” the shortest of the Rain ninjas said, “You don’t look like much.”

He looked to the other two with emphasis and they fell into formation behind them, steely looks on their faces.

“Yeah,” the tallest one said, “I mean, look at that shrimpy one in the middle.”

Beside her, Temari saw Gaara bristle. She wished they would shut up, could read on their faces that they were just putting on, trying to look tough. And she knew it would cost them too.

“I’d shut up if I was you,” Temari bit at them, a warning.

“Oh yeah, like I’m gonna be scared of you,” the one who hadn’t spoken up yet said.

Temari rolled her eyes.

“She’s scary alright,” Kankuro said, throwing Temari a quick grin, “But she’s right, you’d be quiet if you want to live.”

The three ninjas laughed then, laughter that sounded more forced and nervous than they wanted it to be. Something had shaken them, even before they landed here, and they didn’t want to show it.

“Like I’m scared of a bunch of kids from a two-bit village that no one ever wants to visit because it’s hot as fuck,” the shortest said, still playing the act.

“I’ve heard enough out of all of you,” Gaara said, his voice a deep dark force that cut through them all.

Temari didn’t know if she could deal with it anymore, knew that these punks weren’t even worth their time, “Gaara, we already have both scrolls. You don’t need to do this.”

“Yeah,” Kankuro said, knowing it worked better when both he and Temari asked, knew this was already too much, “We’d just be wasting our energy on them.”

“I don’t care,” Gaara said darkly, “They disturbed my peace, so they’re going to die.”

“I’m not gonna be made a fool again!” the taller one shouted, pulling one of the umbrellas away from his back. “Baiu, Midare – with me!”

This was the scream that Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji heard. Worried that the Rain ninjas were turning around to come back at them, they ran to the ledge, prepared to fight.

“Get down,” Shikamaru said, quickly and lightly, when he saw the scene below. The Rain ninjas hadn’t come back for them, instead, they had run into another team. The very same Sand ninjas Shikamaru had tried to avoid.

He, Chouji, and Ino pressed themselves to their stomachs, peering below. Just like right before the entrances opened, Shikamaru felt a hard, dark wrench in his stomach, looking at the red-headed guy from the Sand Village.

There was another shout.

“Hell yeah Shigure!” the smallest Rain ninja yelled below them, ripping his umbrella off his back. The other ninja joined them and in synch, they threw their umbrellas into the air, spinning on the sharpened points. Then, hundreds of flashes of silver, a spinning vortex of needles flew off the umbrella and dove toward Gaara.

Temari and Kankuro didn’t even flinch; they knew what would come next. As the needles dove toward Gaara, a flurry of dust filled the air. As it scattered, the three Rain ninjas looked at it in shock. Not a single needle had landed on the kid. Instead, what looked like a wall of sand surrounded him, taking in the impact of their weapons.

“Woah, is that sand?” Chouji whispered from above.

The feeling in Shikamaru’s stomach grew worse, “I think it is.”

“Nothing hit him,” Ino said, her voice in disbelief.

“Is that all you got?” a dark voice came from behind the wall of sand. Gaara’s bright eyes broke through a crack.

“No fucking way, that’s our best move!” Baiu, the shortest of the Rain ninjas yelled. “Again!”

The three teammates cast another set of umbrellas up into the air and a new rain of needles flew out, this time heading toward Temari and Kankuro. Temari was quicker than her brother, ripping out her fan and pushing the needles away with a shove of air.

Kankuro nodded to her, his way of saying thank you.

“A rainstorm of needles, huh?” Gaara said, a dark hunger brewing behind his eyes. Some of his sand shelter fell away, fully revealing his face and the clear intent on it, “Let’s make it rain blood instead.”

“Gimme me a break!” Shigure, the tallest of them shouted, and ran toward Gaara.

Gaara brought his hands together in a triangle, the sand scattering around him.

“You’re a dead man if you keep running,” Kankuro said nonchalantly, knowing it was already over.

“We warned you,” Temari said, just as apathetically. She noticed one of the umbrellas from earlier had fallen near her. She picked it up, avoiding its sharpened end, and raised it over her head. She looked over at Kankuro, who scooted over, standing beside her under the umbrella.

Shigure was only a foot from Gaara when it happened, a wave of sand rose up and covered him, lifting and freezing his body into the air, only his face free.

“What the hell!” he shouted, terror on his face. “I can’t move! Baui, Midare, help!”

His two teammates looked at each, panicked, remembering all too well how it had felt just ten minutes ago, when that girl had had control of their bodies. They didn’t want to go through that again.

Above them, Shikamaru felt his stomach drop even harder as he saw the sand snake around the guy. He watched the girl, the one he had shared his answers with, pick up an umbrella. She the other black-clad guy on their team stood under it, like they knew what was coming next.

“Shikamaru, you don’t think he actually meant blood rain, do you?” Chouji asked, gulping. Ino looked at both of them, fear in her eyes.

Below, Gaara walked coolly toward Shigure, picking up his own fallen umbrella as he did so. He looked at Shigure, who was still panicking and shouting for his teammates, and turned his head from left to right, like he was curious.

So fascinating, a dark voice inside of his head whispered, when they try to beg.

He opened the umbrella over his head with one arm, and with another, he reached a hand out to Shigure, whose shouting got louder and louder by the second, “All I have to do is cover your mouth and you’d be dead, but that would be too boring.”

The moment he said this, he closed his outstretched hand into a sharp fist. As he did, the sand around Shigure tightened in a flash and crushed him. There wasn’t even time for him to scream as the sand tightened and his body was reduced to nothing but blood and parts, darkened sand spilled everywhere, raining down as Gaara promised.

Baui and Midare screamed and ran, but Gaara was quicker. Fresh sand spilled from his gourd and sped after them both, trapping and crushing them the same way it did their teammate. A fresh round of blood rained down, and the Sand Siblings held their umbrellas over their heads, each of their eyes dark.

Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji looked on in horror, each of them frozen in their own fears. They hadn’t been full ninjas for very long, but even so, they had never expected to see something so brutal. Never watched someone kill so coldly and so deftly like that.

Finally, when the blood stopped, Temari dropped the umbrella and sighed. She was so, so tired and she wasn’t sure she could take anymore.

“Let’s go,” she said softly.

“No,” Gaara replied. His eyes looked above them, at a set of three dark shadows on the ridge above them, “There’s someone there.”

Shikamaru knew instantly that he was talking about them. He looked at his teammates, both who held the same panic in their eyes. The panic that this would be his last moment, his teammates’ last moments. Shikamaru had been scared before, but he had never felt death so closely. But he felt it now, pushing into every fiber of his being.

But then he heard a voice, and somehow when he did, he knew he wasn’t going to die, not yet “Gaara, please.”

I was the girl, the one he had shared his answers with. She was looking at the red-headed guy, Gaara, a sad look of desperation on her voice. Shikamaru looked at her, and somehow, his fear evaporated. He couldn’t explain it. He had just watched Gaara kill three people in cold blood, yet he knew that this girl wouldn’t let that happen again.

Temari hated the way her voice cracked when she said it, hated that she let the fear that she tried so hard to hide trickle into her voice, “We have the scrolls, please, let’s just go to the tower.”

“Why, I haven’t had enough. Have you?” Gaara said, his voice gravely and wanting, how it always sounded after he killed someone. He turned his eyes away from the ridge and back to her. Temari flinched. Sometimes, Gaara looked so much like Rasa that she couldn’t help it.

Inside of him, the whispering voice pulsed. He needed more. More blood, more death, more chaos. He was hungry, and for now, Gaara was just his vessel.

Temari shook her head, not sure what to say, the fear inside of her cracking open and spilling through her veins.

“Look Gaara,” Kankuro said, the same hesitation in his voice, “We know that you can handle this test, but it’s dangerous for me and Temari. We’re not protected like you are. If Temari hadn’t thought so fast back there, those needles would’ve got us.”

“You losers don’t get to tell me what to do,” Gaara said, the darkness inside of him speaking for him.

“Gaara, please,” Temari tried again, “You need to listen to your siblings sometimes.”

“Too bad I don’t think of you as my siblings,” Gaara said darkly, “I’d kill you just as easily if you get in my way.”

Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji glanced at each other, too terrified to move or do anything. Couldn’t imagine that those three were family, couldn’t imagine how he could threaten the his siblings so easily.

Temari felt herself go numb, remembered too much that was at stake her. It wasn’t just about the test or the deal they had made with the Sound Village. She had her own agenda, she had to make it through the end, to protect herself and her brothers, even if they didn’t consider her as a sister.

“We’re not your enemies, Gaara,” Kankuro said through gritted teeth. He didn’t understand why it always had to be this way.

“We have things we promised, remember,” Temari said, thinking of the promise they had all made, and the promise she had made to herself. She knew this was the only way to appeal to him, “You’ll get an opportunity for more later.”

The darkness inside of him remembered then, the hushed meeting and dark whispers with Rasa before the Chunnin Exams. Everything that was promised, everything that was to come. Yes, it thought, it would be much better to wait until then.

“Fine,” Gaara said, feeling the darkness in him settle, “We’ll be okay this time.”

He walked forward, the opposite direction of the ridge. As he turned his back, it was like the spell broke on Team 10. They didn’t need to talk; they just knew they needed to get out of there. Once again, they ran into the dark night and didn’t stop for a very, very long time.

Before she followed after her brother, Temari watched the shadows at the ridge disappear, and saw, in the dull color of the moonlight, that one of the shadows was the boy from the test, the one who had shared his answers. He and his teammates were gone in a flash and Temari knew that it was fear of Gaara that was propelling them on.

Just as her fear, of everything that had happened and everything that could happen, would be what pushed her forward.

* * *

Miles away from this, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were taking advantage of a less dense part of the forest, the bright moonlight bouncing off of them in big patches.

“I can’t tell if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that we haven’t run into any other teams yet,” Sakura said.

“Both,” Sasuke said, “Good because we haven’t yet been at risk. Bad because we haven’t had any opportunities to find a scroll.”

“Well according to the map,” Sakura said, spreading it out in the moonlight, “We’re still pretty close to the perimeter, we may need to go deeper.”

“Ughh, more running,” Naruto whined. It felt like that’s all they had done. He either wanted some rest or some action, and it seemed like neither of those were options his teammates were offering him right now.

“Naruto, this is a survival exam, you can’t be tired on the first night,” Sasuke said coldly. Naruto had gone from hyped to tired in about thirty minutes and it was wearing on Sasuke’s nerves.

“Sasuke is right,” Sakura said, “Our goal is to get a scroll on the first night, we shouldn’t rest until then.”

“I’d be okay with staying up if something actually happened, but this is so boring,” Naruto said. They were right; he was tired and wanted to stop. Today had been really long, when he thought about it. Turning in their paperwork, that fight with the weird guy in green, that test, the break between with all those numbers and the annoying proctor, and now this. What he really wanted was a nap. And if he couldn’t get that then he needed something, just anything to happen.

“Naruto, it’s only been a few hours,” Sasuke responded. Naruto sighed.

The truth was, Sasuke was just as bored as Naruto, but he wasn’t going to let that show. They’d find another team tonight, he was sure of it, and when they did, they would make sure to capture their scroll. Sasuke was antsy for it to happen, antsy for this part of the chunnin exams to be over. If they succeeded tonight, then they could take easy for the remaining days. But they just needed to find someone first.

“Whatever,” Naruto said, restless, “I need to piss anyway.”

He turned around to face a tree ahead of them and Sakura smacked him on the head.

“What are you doing, that’s gross!” she yelled, “At least have the dignity to go like twenty feet away or something.”

Naruto rolled his eyes and ran off into the woods. Sasuke eyed him warily.

In the silence left behind, Sasuke listened. He heard the soft shaking of the leaves, wind pushing through it. Something that sounded like smooth slithering movement, like a snake moving in the dark. And far off, the sound of screams, so far away they almost sounded like whispers.

“What do you think that is?” Sakura asked, hearing them too.

“Doesn’t matter, it’s too far away for us to make any difference,” Sasuke answered.

Sakura looked at Sasuke, his face pensive and serious in the moonlight. If she was being honest with herself, everything about this forest scared her. Its sounds and darkness and the possibility of all the other ninja teams out there, especially the Sound ninja, who seemed like they wanted nothing more than to take advantage of the lack of rules for this round. But looking at Sasuke, she felt a sense of calm. She knew he could protect her, and that she could protect him too.

“Woah, that was a lot,” Naruto said, returning with a dopey grin on his face, “I almost spelled my whole name.”

Sakura rolled her eyes, “That’s so digusting, Naruto.”

But Sasuke’s eyes were sharper, and he noticed something was off immediately. In a swift motion he kicked Naruto in the chest, sending him flying into a tree.

“Sasuke, that’s too much!” Sakura said, confused, thinking Sasuke was reacting to Naruto’s piggish attitude.

“What the hell!” Naruto shouted, recovering himself and standing up.

“Where’s the real Naruto?” Sasuke asked, his voice terse and tense.

“What?” Sakura said, looking at Naruto. There was something off about him, she just couldn’t put her finger on it.

“What are you talking about man?” Naruto said, walking toward them. Sasuke was even quicker this time, kicking him back harder.

“What happened to the scratch the proctor’s kunai left on your face?” Sasuke demanded.

Sakura tensed and pulled out her kunai, seeing the other mistakes, this wasn’t Naruto. “And your weapons pouch is on the wrong side. Naruto keeps his on his right leg. Yours is on the left.”

The Naruto imitation chuckled, “Yeah, you got me. Doesn’t matter, I’m still going to take your scroll.”

A puff of smoke rose up. As it did, the poor imitation faded and left behind a guy in a tan jumpsuit and strange metal mask, which wrapped around his face and covered his mouth.

“So which one of you has it?” he asked, his voice odd and muffled by the mask.

And then he dove at them. They both jumped back, and Sasuke quickly made the hands for the fire style jutsu. Balls of flame shot from his mouth and toward the strange ninja who quickly dodged all of them. He jumped and met Sasuke again, their kunais clashing against each other before forcing them back.

Meanwhile, Sakura jumped behind the tree where Naruto had disappeared to, and there he was, tied and taped up. She slashed at the ropes around his arms and legs and ripped the tape off his mouth.

“Ow!” Naruto shouted, “Where is that guy?”

“Come on,” she said, and pulled him from back around the tree, where the ninjas and Sasuke met kunais again. The guy flipped back and landed on a tree branch above them just as Sasuke landed beside them. In a flash, three kunai landed in front of them, each of them with their own sizzling paper tag.

“Paper bombs, move!” Sasuke yelled and they all did, jumping high up, landing in the branches near the guy as the small bombs when off below them, blowing dust and leaves up from the ground.

Sakura didn’t waste a second, and dove forward, launching the guy into the air with a kick. He flew back but caught himself, jumping back at them as Naruto threw a kunai his way. He dodged it, but Sasuke was quicker, his eyes flashing a sudden red, everything suddenly clearer and concise to him. He jumped up and snatched Naruto’s kunai out of the air, and with a quick catch and turn around motion, brought its hard point into the guy’s stomach.

Warm blood spilled over his finger and he released, the guy fell out of the air, and landed hard on the ground.

Team 7 landed in front of him as he got up, pulling the kunai out of his side with a grunt.

“Don’t let your guard down,” Sasuke said tensely, “His teammates could be anywhere.”

“I wish,” the guy said with a harsh sigh, gripping at his bleeding side, “I came alone.”

And with that, he was running off, like he meant it. Like he was scared of what else they could do to them.

“Come on! Let’s go after him!” Naruto yelled. He was amped now. This was exactly what he had been waiting for, for something to happen. Besides, he wanted his own revenge for getting knocked around and tied up.

“Um…guys,” Sakura said, her voice dripping with fear, “I don’t think we can do that.”

Sasuke and Naruto, both ready to pursue him, turned around to Sakura, to see what she meant. And then they saw what she saw. A snake, bigger than any of them had ever seen, thick as a trunk of a tree. Its massive body wrapped around branches further back than they could see. It moved slowly, winding its way down branches, the smooth slither the same sound Sasuke had heard earlier but hadn’t thought of earlier. The snake’s great eyes flashed in the patches of moonlight.

A tremor of fear pushed through all of them.

“Run!” Sasuke yelled, “Now!”

And then did, moving in the opposite direction just as the giant snake lashed out at them, squeezing at branches until it ripped them apart and hissing as it pursued them. It was so massive that even though they were moving quickly, jumping from tree to tree in frantic bounds, that it was still catching up with them.

And then suddenly it was gone, as if the snake had evaporated into the night. They all stopped, panting and weary, looking through the shadows around them. The snake had chased them deeper into the forest, into darker reaches where less moonlight made its way through the thick canopies above. Sasuke’s eyes shone a blood red in the dark but even with enhanced vision, he could no longer see the snake.

He closed his eyes and when he reopened them, they were black, “It’s gone.”

Naruto let out a huge sigh, “Whew, that was clo—”

Sakura slapped a hand over Naruto’s mouth, and looked, with frantic eyes, beneath them. Both boys followed her gaze and saw another team, far below them, sitting around a small fire.

All three of them were Leaf Village ninjas, based on the headbands, but none they had ever seen before. In fact, no one on Team 7 recognized these ninjas, not even from first portion of the exam or the break before or this or any other part of the day. Two of the ninjas looked generic, grey outfits and standard jackets, with ordinary faces. But the third, even in the dull light, they could tell was strange. They were a tan tunic of dark pants, with a thick purple rope around their waist. Their hair was long and dark, falling to their waist and their eyes were a dark eerie yellow. No one on Team 7 could quite tell if the strange ninja was a girl or a boy. They were speaking, but weren’ta understandable, the ninjas too far below them. But they watched as the strange one spoke, a tongue slithered from their mouth, pink and long and forked – just like a snake.

Sasuke felt his stomach drop at the sight, felt something which he hadn’t felt in years crawl up from the pit of his stomach and grip hold of his heart. It was fear. Not like the fear he had on that mission, when he was worried Naruto, Sakura, or even Kakashi was dead. Not like the fear he had just had, while the snake chased them through the woods. But a different type of fear, dark and horrid, one that filled his mouth with bile and blurred his eyes and made his skin crawl. The last time Sasuke had felt this much fear was when he had walked in on the bloodied bodies of his entire family.

“Let’s go,” he said sharply, his voice so low it was barely a whisper.

Sakura looked at him, concerned. Even in the pale moonlight, she could see it, an expression she had never quite seen on Sasuke’s face. It made her heart feel like it was trapped in her throat.

Naruto wrestled Sakura’s hand away from his mouth, his whisper not as subtle as Sasuke’s, “But what if they have the scroll we need?”

“I don’t care,” Sasuke said lowly, and turned away, jumping into the dark of the forest. He just needed to get away for a moment. Right now, Naruto and Sakura and this test and nothing else mattered. He needed to get away from this feeling.

“Sasuke,” Sakura said lowly, all of her concern spilling over in her voice. She followed him into the dark.

Naruto stayed back for a moment, looking down at the ninjas below him. He pictured it for a moment, diving down on them and taking them all down. Getting the scroll and being a big hero for his teammates, showing up Sasuke, who was acting so weird. But going at it alone hadn’t really worked for that other guy. And there was something pulling at Naruto, telling him that Sasuke needed him. That there was a reason for his hesitation, and Naruto needed to be there for him.

He cast one last wary look at the strange ninjas below them, and then jumped into the darkness behind his teammates.

* * *

While all of this happened, Team 8 went to work. Using the minimal map that they received, Shino was able to lead them to the section of the forest where his father had cultivated the slugs. It took them deeper into the forest then they expected, and they could barely see each other in the rising moon.

But they could see the slugs, shiny and slimy all over the trees. Shino showed Kiba and Hinata how to gather them without touching them, using leaves as a barrier. Their slime was poisonous and extended exposure to it could cause death. Even though only a little bit would cause them to pass out, they were careful in gathering them up. It was Hinata who had the idea that they net them up, using the provided bag to make it. They split is contents between their pouches, Hinata taking their Earth scroll and burying it deep beneath her weapons. She split the bag into thin strands and wove them together quickly, creating a wide, loose net, just big enough to hold a few people and a handful of slugs. Kiba was the one who had the plan about drawing another team out, about bragging aloud until someone showed up.

It took longer than they expected, with tired eyes working through the dark of the night until the first soft yellow edges of morning peeked beyond the horizon. It was soon after this that they heard them, another team, light feet hitting the trees and moving swiftly through the woods.

Kiba raised an eyebrow at Hinata and Shino and they nodded back at him.

“Well that was easy,” Kiba said, his voice loud and triumphant, “Now that we have a Heaven and an Earth scroll, let’s make our way to the tower.”

“Yes, let’s go,” her voice much louder than normal, projecting into the woods.

As they spoke the shuffling stopped, just as they predicted it would. The other team was stopping.

“A heaven and an earth scroll you say?” a voice called. They looked above them, at three Stone ninjas standing above them in the trees, each of them in dark jumpsuits and goggles over their eyes.

Kiba, Hinata, and Shino all did their best to look shocked, like they hadn’t expected the ninjas to overhear them. Kiba gave a barely perceptible nod at Hinata and she reached into her pouch.

“You mean one of these scrolls?” she said, holding out in her hand, trying her best to sound innocent.

“Well, if you’re offering it up sweetie,” one of the ninjas said and dove at her. The other two followed suit.

Hinata felt herself flush, annoyed by his comment, but she knew what to do. She dodged their assault by flipping back, avoiding the long reach of their hands and feet. Shino and Kiba jumped into the trees above, on either side of a long branch, pushing themselves into the shadow of the branches. Between them lay the net, flat and disguised, the brown of the slugs inside of it blending in with the darkness of the tree. It was Hinata’s job to lure the other team there.

They followed the motions of her flips. One of them threw a set of shuriken her way and she barely had time to dodge them, felt the whip of them as they landed in a tree just beyond her. But this was good. It gave her an excuse to get higher. She jumped in the air, but as she tried, she felt a set of arms grip around her, one of the ninjas pulling her to the ground. Shino and Kiba made a move to help her but paused when the Hinata in the ninja’s arms disappeared in a puff smoke, a clone she made before the chase even began. The real Hinata appeared on top of the net, in the branch.

The three ninjas, still on the ground, looked up at her.

“You still want this?” she said, the Earth scroll in her hand. They followed her into the tree, and she jumped back. Just as she did, Shino and Kiba tugged on the ropes they had set up and the net went up in a flash, trapping all three ninjas.

Kiba and Shino tied off the net and dove below the tree. Hinata followed them.

“Ugh, what are these?” one of the ninjas said, shaking off the slugs, which were roving over their bodies in the net.

“Fucking disgusting man,” one of them said, shaking one of the slugs off.

“I’m not staying here,” the third said. He pulled out a kunai and sawed through the net, and they all fell out. They barely managed to land on their feet, many of the slugs still clinging to their exposed skin. Already, the effects were taking place, their faces turning a pallid grey, their tugs at the slug getting weaker and weaker as they fell to their knees.

Kiba couldn’t help but gloat, it had been so easy, “You fell right for our trap. We barely even had to try.”

“Wha-what?” one them tried to say as he fell to the ground, his voice weak. The other two fell beside him.

“The slime on those slugs induces fainting,” Shino said coldly, “Among other things.”

The same ninja who had called Hinata ‘sweetie’ just moments before looked up at her, “Fucking bitch.”

Hinata sucked in a breath as he passed out. His teammates followed him in seconds.

Kiba looked at Hinata, a look of concern on his face, “Ignore them. Besides, it worked, we get their scroll now.”

Akamaru jumped from Kiba’s jacket and nosed around the fallen ninjas, careful to avoid the slugs, who were still actively sliding over the ninjas’ bodies. He yipped and buried his face into one of their pouches and pulled something out – a Heaven scroll.

He trotted over to Kiba and deposited in his outstretched hand.

“Thanks buddy,” Kiba said, patting him on the hand and scooping him up again. He turned to his teammates, “I bet we’re one of the first teams to get two scrolls. I mean, the sun is only just rising.”

As he said this, the forest lit up in gold, as if making his point. Bright streams of yellowed light shot between the branches, leaves, and various flora and fauna of the forest. Hinata’s eyes fell on the ninjas, piled just a few feet away from them, slugs still moving over their bodies. Their faces looked so pale.

“Our next objective should be making it to the tower,” Shino said, pulling the map from his pouch.

“But what about them?” Hinata asked, gesturing to the fallen ninjas.

“Leave them, less competition is my book,” Kiba said, casting a way glance their way.

“The process should be complete within 2 or 3 more minutes,” Shino said matter-of-factly.

“But they’ll die!” Hinata sputtered, shocked that her teammates would be so cold.

Kiba shrugged her shoulders, “Yeah, they will.”

“As ninjas, we kill all the time. It’s part of the job,” Shino said bluntly.

“Yeah, but that’s when there are enemies,” Hinata said, remembering too precisely the few different times she had killed so far. It hadn’t been something she had thought on too deeply at the time, but this was different. “These were just other ninja teams, like ours, trying to make it through the exams.”

“But they were so shitty to you,” Kiba said, exasperation in his voice.

“I don’t care!” Hinata responded, voice high and angry. She pushed past them and using the same method they had used throughout the night, collected the slugs with leaves, pulling them from the boys’ bodies.

For a moment, Kiba and Shino just watched her, confused by why she would feel such pity for a ninja who used their last breaths to call her bitch. But then both Kiba and Shino felt the warm bubbling in the bottom of their stomachs, the one they always got when they looked at Hinata in a certain light or listened to her talk about her interests or so much more. And right now, Hinata was trying to save these ninjas because they weren’t really their enemies. She was being kind.

They walked forward and helped her, carefully taking off more slugs and cleaning off the residual slime. Shino guessed they would live, but they would be knocked out for a day or two, so they pushed their heavy bodies under the cover of the tree roots.

When they were done, Hinata looked at her teammates, a barely there smile on her face, “Thank you, for helping, for not thinking I’m too soft.”

Kiba’s stomach warmed at the soft smile, “You’re not soft, you’re just kind. You’re right. They’re not our enemies, just some other genin trying to make it through,”

“It’s our job to kill only when needed,” Shino said, his voice a little more emotive and kinder than normal. “We achieved our objective without the need for further action.”

“Well then,” Hinata said, the smile on her face deepening, glad she had teammates who were understanding, “I guess we should get to the tower and claim our victory.”

They nodded and followed after her as she jumped into the trees, diving away from the bright folds of the sun’s new light, not knowing the harsh realities the day would hold for them.

* * *

As the sun broke through another part of the forest, a few ninjas appeared in a clearing. The first was Kabuto, walking into a clearing with an expectant expression. His two teammates followed, taller than him, both in the same outfits as him but with masks that covered the bottom of their faces and headbands covering their entire heads. Barely noticeable, compared to Kabuto.

Jumping from some trees into the clearing, another team appeared – the Sound Village team who had hurt Kabuto earlier. He gave them an icy glare.

“Had some fun last night?” Kabuto asked, his voice cold.

“Oh, you couldn’t imagine,” the girl, Kin, said with a grin on her face.

“Yeah, just like the fun you had with me yesterday?” Kabuto asked, his voice still as cold.

“Oh, come on,” the boy with brown hair, Zaku, said, “We were supposed to make it look believable.”

Kabuto shook his head and gave a quick glance to Dosu, the final Sound ninja of the crew. He had no words for him.

In a puff of smoke another set of three ninjas appeared. Two nondescript ninjas and a tall ninja, with indeterminate gender, long black hair, pallid skin, and a dark purple rope wrapped around a tan tunic.

“Seems like our friends from the Sand Village have already made their way to the tower,” the ninja said, their voice an echoing hiss.

“What do you mean?” Kabuto said, his attention rapt and attentive to the strange looking ninja.

“Exactly what I said,” the ninja replied, the same odd hiss in their voice.

“We don’t need them anyway, right?” Kin asked, “They just need to make it to the final rounds, and we know they’re good enough for that.”

“Exactly,” the strange ninja hissed.

“But still, it’s incompetent,” Kabuto said, an edge in his voice, “I don’t trust them.”

“You don’t trust anyone,” Dosu said, returning the cold gaze Kabuto gave him earlier.

“They’re right Kabuto, we don’t need the Sand ninjas until the final act,” the strange ninja hissed.

Kabuto shook his head and decided it was time to change the subject, “So of the nine…?”

The strange ninja’s eyes lit up, “Oh, I’ve decided.”

“And…?” Kabuto asked, his eyes rapt. 

“You’ll find out in time,” the ninja answered, and Kabuto deflated. “I think I’m gonna have a little more fun with them before we act.”

“Yeah, we spooked them last night,” one of the nondescript ninjas said, his voice amused.

Kabuto smirked, “And I thought you never played with your meals first.”

The strange ninja shrugged his shoulders and then looked at everyone, “I want to do a little more on my own first. Meet at the next sunrise, and we’ll plan it all out.”

A wary look passed between all of them, each of them hoping for some early action. But they knew they needed to listen, knew what the consequences would be if they showed impatience or acted too soon. Only Kabuto could away with that. So instead, they all nodded and dispersed. As the sun fully lit up the forest, the clearing was empty again.

* * *

As the light of day shone through the thick woods, some of the ninjas relaxed, happy to leave the night. Others felt more tense, scared that there would be no place to hide, no place to pretend like they weren’t going to be trapped here for so much longer. Some couldn’t face what they had done during the night in the harsh light of day. Others reveled in the bright, new dawn and everything they could make possible in the light that wasn’t possible in the dark. And, and, and….

Daylight would bring new stories. 


	18. (Here) The Forest of Death - Part Two

Things were softer in the day, more than they expected them to be. The dark thrill of the night had fallen off their skin, the glow of it making appetites stronger, making muscles tired, and aspirations weak. Only a few teams had gotten scrolls the night before, and many more had lost them, and some of them…well, they no longer had hearts, or minds, or bodies to speak with. The forest of death had drunk its fill, in blood of those dead and of those injured. The forest was sated, for now, decided it would let the day be a kinder than the night, if only by a little bit.

All the while, the woven strands of reality pulsed, each new decision and mistake and move and look and breath a new storied path. The new day brought a soft quiet to the strands, though it wouldn’t last long. 

* * *

As morning came, Neji only grew angrier. They had been in this forest for thirteen hours, yet they had accomplished nothing besides a lot of running and a lot of hiding out. It was no one’s fault, he knew, but he was still pissed.

TenTen walked up beside him, stretching out her sore arms. Behind them, Lee was doing his morning ritual, a workout routine to recover from the hard, damp night they had all spent in the cave.

“Do you think we’ll have any luck today?” TenTen asked, looking at the dense forest ahead of them.

Neji looked out at the bright sunlight, the way it opened and exposed everything in the forest. Lee popped up and joined them.

“Everyone is probably hiding out, now that it’s daytime,” Neji said bitterly. His eyes flashed, veins around them appearing, a sudden harshness to his pupils. His Byakugan was activated, “but I have an idea.”

He looked out at the forest, the whole of it pulsing and revealing itself to him in completely new ways. He was determined to make this day count.

The nigh before, in the long dark of the forest, disaster had struck. They had been tracking another team, whose chakras looked weak and unfocused. They hadn’t been tracking them for long, just thirty minutes or so, and they were waiting for the team to rest before they attacked. Neji imagined it all, could see, with his eyes, just how easy this team would be to defeat. Since it was so dark when they entered the forest, they relied on Neji’s eyes – buoyed by chakras and movement and everything else, the night of the forest still too dark, the moon not yet high enough in the sky.

But he hadn’t seen the nest fast enough, his eyes so focused on the team below them – the target—that the mass of swollen, bubbling chakra directly in front of him didn’t register until it was too late.

Rock Lee, Neji, and TenTen hit the giant nest at full speed, ripping through it and falling below, crashing into the very team they were tracking. For a moment, everyone was shocked; the Leaf Village team confused by what had suddenly thrown them off the path and the Mist ninjas shocked by what they perceived as a sudden attack. This confusion barely lasted a second, before they all heard it, an ominous buzzing, a flurry of shadows raining down in the darkness, and what looked like infinite pairs of white glowing eyes. Just at the moment, the moon rose high enough between the branches, casting light on the hundreds of insects heading their way.

They looked like a cross between a wasp and a spider. Black bodies with eight spindly legs and a mass of white eyes, bulbous on their faces. But they each had a sharp stinger at the end of their bodies, and a pair of wings, moving rapidly. Most terrifying was their size, each of them as big as cats, larger than any insect any of the ninjas had ever seen. They shook the air with their buzzing. Neji saw these insects a little more deeply. A concentration of chakra in their abdomens, with lines spreading throughout their bodies, powering them forward.

“What the fuck!” one of the Mist ninjas yelled. He sprinted away, his teammates following. A mass of the insects broke off, heading after them at a rapid speed. Neji, Rock Lee, and TenTen barely had time to hear the screams of the other team before they had to act.

Neji spun around, his chakra pushing out and away from him, a whole shield of it. He heard the chinks as the insects tried to attack him, the force of his chakra repelling them away from him with brute force. This was the Revolving Heaven Jutsu, and as long and Neji kept spinning, nothing could touch him.

At the same moment, TenTen was pulling out one of her scrolls, the one that summoned hundreds of kunai. With a quick drop of her blood, they appeared and TenTen shot them out in rapid succession, hitting the insects straight in the stomach. They fell to the ground in a sharp motion, twitching on the ground.

Beside them, Rock Lee moved faster than either of them, hitting the bugs out of the air with powerful hits and kicks, spinning to dodge one here and hitting another one there. He didn’t have the same technique as his teammates, but with his sheer speed, he was knocking out twice the amount as they did.

For a few minutes, it seemed like they were holding their ground, each of them avoiding the heavy stings of the insects, with only a few close calls. The only issue was that there were just so many of them, and they kept coming. The demolished remnants of their nest spread among ten or so trees and all three of them had a feeling they had only just encountered the first wave.

It was Neji who eased off first, ending his spinning, moving quickly and landing hits on their chakra centers instead, the force of it making them fall dead in the air. TenTen slowed her pull of weapons, realizing she’d need to summon more soon if she continued at this rate. And Lee’s speed was decreasing, his energy wearing.

It was TenTen who remembered the rough map that had been provided for them. Most of the forest was a series of dense trees, a dark river, and streams breaking off from it. But there were some cliffs along the edges of the map, with dark markers that, to her, looked like caves. It’s possible that other teams were already waiting in these caves, but they could risk it. There was no way they could stand their ground here much longer.

“Follow me!” TenTen yelled, loud enough for both her teammates to hear, “I know where we can find shelter.”

Although both Neji and Rock Lee were hesitant to leave, remembering how quickly the insects had caught up with the other team, but they trusted TenTen. She dove into the woods and they followed after her, a flurry of the insects on their trails.

As they jumped from tree to tree and branch to branch, the incessant buzzing bit at their eyes and occasionally they had to jump into the defensive again, TenTen releasing a few weapons or Rock Lee a few hits or Neji spinning on the wide branches of a tree, sending a flurry of them back with the Revolving Heaven Jutsu. But after a few minutes they came across the cliff face.

“There!” TenTen shouted and pointed to the open face of a cave, shadowy in the dull moonlight. She sent a shuriken over her shoulder as she said this; it landed in the gut of the bug closest to her.

Neji pushed back a few that were gaining on him with some strategic hits and then glanced at where TenTen was pointed. With his enhanced vision, she saw what he meant, a cave in the side of the cliff-face, but it didn’t look promising. His eyes showed him how small it was, its opening wide and open, which would still leave them defenseless.

Lee appeared, knocking away a few of the insects that nearly landed their stingers into Neji’s shoulder. Neji took the quick second of Lee’s defense to scan the cliffside, and saw it, another cave further up, his eyes telling him this one was deeper and wider, with something that looked like a covering.

“No, there!” he yelled, pointing toward the newer cave. His teammates followed his finger and jumped toward it without hesitation. They were in the cave in seconds, fighting off the insects that followed them into its mouth. Closer up, Neji saw the covering he had perceived earlier, a boulder just inside the cave wall, that looked like it could be pushed in front of the opening, almost as if it had been designed for that exact purpose.

“Back up!” he yelled and began to spin. His teammates jumped from dodge as he spun into another round of the Revolving Heaven Jutsu. The onslaught of insects pouring into the opening were shoved back, giving them seconds of time.

Neji paused and ran toward the boulder, pushing at it. Lee and TenTen joined him and in moments, it was closing in on the opening, sealing them in. A few of the insects had managed to get in with them but TenTen was quick, sending out shuriken that pierced their bellies, dropping them to the ground. 

The cave was dark as hell once they closed the entrance, and no one could see anything, but Neji. All they could hear the incessant buzzing just outside the cave, growing louder and louder by the second, as the whole swarm caught up.

They stood in the dark, panting and tired, hearts calming down after the encounter. As the moments passed, their eyes adjusted to the dark, just slightly, and then, slowly and suddenly, the cave was lit, by what looked like blurry blue lights inside the wall. With the glow of these sudden blue lights they could see the range of the cave, spreading back around ten feet and only slightly further in width. It was cool and damp in the cave, and somewhere far off, they heard what sounded like dripping.

“What is this?” TenTen asked, looking at the light blue glow of the walls and then the same surprise registering on her teammates faces.

“Glow worms, I think,” Lee said, a smile lighting up his face. Guy had told them about him once, but he had never pictured them this beautiful. It was a delight, after the chase they just had.

TenTen shivered, “Ugh, more bugs.”

“They won’t hurt us,” Lee said, still in awe of them.

Neji was already thinking ahead, looking at the last of the insects that TenTen had killed, their twitching bodies on the far side of the cave floor. His Byakugan showed their chakra waning as they died. He deactivated his eyes and looked at them in normal sight, their blood spilling out just as milky and white as their eyes.

TenTen noticed Neji’s curiosity and came over herself. Outside, the flurry of buzzing continued.

“What do you think those are?” TenTen asked, using a spare kunai to turn one of the dead insects over.

“Probably just one of the many creatures that live in the forest,” Neji said, “The proctor did warn us.”

“Yeah, but I just assumed that it would be animals I already knew, not things like this,” TenTen said, backing away from them. Her heart rate was only just calming down and she didn’t want to look at those things any longer than she was required to.

“Well,” Neji said seriously, “the ninja world is bigger than we think.”

After a moment, they settled in – or the best they could in a cold, damp cave, lit up by glow worms. The buzzing persisted outside as they made a plan to leave as soon as it stopped. Only it didn’t stop and eventually, the repetitive sound wore them all to sleep.

When Neji woke before the other two, there was no noise outside the entrance. He pushed back the boulder to the brightness of dawn and the annoyance that came with it. But then his teammates were awake and getting ready, all of them standing at the mouth of the cave. And Neji knew exactly where they could find a scroll.

It was an easy path to follow, the dead husks of the insects creating a trail for them to follow back to the original attack. While their journey to the caves had taken what seemed like forever the night before, it took them mere minutes to get back to where the nest was. High in the tree above them, the nest was less ruined than it was the night before, the insects buzzing around it, repairing the damage.

TenTen shuddered, “Why’d do you bring us back here?”

She was weary. The insects seemed too busy in their nest, and besides, her team was on the ground, far from them, but it still didn’t mean they would attack.

“Because I’m curious,” Neji said. He activated his eyes and saw it, just beyond the trees where the other team had run. He pushed ahead, to the spot his vision focused on. TenTen and Lee followed.

What they saw wasn’t pretty. The team they had planned to sneak up on was dead, but they hardly looked human anymore. Their bodies were swollen and bloated, deep marks in their skin dripping with white pus, marks of where the insects had gotten them. Despite dying only hours before, they already smelled of rot, a gag-inducing stench. They all felt their stomachs turn.

But Neji saw what he wanted; saw whose backpack it was in. Holding his breath, he reached into the backpack of the body closest to him, careful not to get any pus on him, and felt his hands close around it – the scroll.

He pulled out and backed away, a smile on his face. It certainly wasn’t the fight he imagined for it, but the way he saw it, his team was smart enough to defend themselves against and hide from the insects, the Mist ninjas weren’t. That meant his team deserved to reap the rewards.

“That’s really not honorable, Neji,” Rock Lee said. His stomach was turning, not just at the sight of the bodies, but at the idea that Neji would so easily steal something off their bodies. It was a shame that they had died, and that Neji was using their death to his advantages like this, it didn’t sit well with Rock Lee. He wanted to prove himself during this exam, but not like this.

Neji shot Lee a tense look, “This isn’t a test of honor, Lee. It’s a test of skill and survival.”

“But what skill are we demonstrating by stealing their scroll? By not leaving them to rest?” Lee asked, the unease in his stomach still there. He didn’t want any part in not leaving the dead in peace.

Neji gritted his teeth. Lee was always like this, so hung up on honor and work and all these other values that sure, made him stronger, but annoyed Neji to no end. Not all ninjas got the opportunity to be honorable. Besides, Neji knew that even those who called themselves the most honorable, who called themselves noble clans, where those who committed the most dishonorable acts.

“It shows that we were more skillful than them in escaping. As far as I’m concerned, it means we’re entitled to this scroll,” Neji explained. He didn’t have time for Lee’s foolishness.

Lee bristled. He knew Neji well enough to know how he thought, knew exactly how bitter Neji was about his fate. Rightfully so, Lee thought. But that didn’t mean he was allowed to ignore the rules of decency.

“It doesn’t matter,” Lee said, “It’s still not decent or right to do this.”

TenTen was nervous, had heard discussions like this before, knew just how tense it could get when Neji and Lee butted heads about their values.

“Come on guys, is this really worth discussing right now?” TenTen asked, hoping they would call it off.

For the first time, Neji noticed the kanji on the scroll – a Heaven scroll. The only use this would serve them would be in stopping another team from retrieving it. A wave of anger pushed through him.

“It’s useless anyway,” Neji spat, “We already have a Heaven scroll, we need an Earth scroll.”

“Good,” Lee said, challenge in his eyes, “Then we actually have a chance to succeed in an honorable way.”

Neji, already angry, couldn’t deal with this admission, “You always prefer the difficult way, don’t you?”

“What does that mean?” Lee asked, though he already knew what Neji was implying.

Neji leveled his eyes at Rock Lee, “Just that you pride yourself too much on working through difficult circumstances. Have you ever thought that maybe things are difficult because they’re not meant to be?”

“Neji, don’t—” TenTen began, but Neji interrupted.

“Like being a ninja. You think it makes you better than you’ve somehow managed to accomplish it despite challenges. You think that makes you more honorable. But I say it doesn’t, I say it just means you’re wasting your time. You’ll never be as good as me. It’s better to just resign yourself to your fate.”

“Neji!” TenTen yelled, shocked by how harsh it was. She knew Neji had his hang ups, knew that he found Lee’s endless optimism and hard work exhausting sometimes. But in the last year and a half of being teammates, despite how much he and Lee butted heads, he had never said something like that.

Lee was quiet for a moment, thinking about what Neji said. He knew he should feel more hurt by it, knew that his teammate’s lack of respect for him should destroy him – but it didn’t. Instead, Lee just felt bad for Neji, felt bad that he was so resigned to accept things as is. Neji was born with talent and genius, a natural ability that Lee sometimes felt himself bursting with jealousy over. But Neji was so full of spite, so angry about his position, that he would never use his strength to push past the boundaries that life had laid out for him. So, Lee felt bad for him, felt bad that his teammate would never be willing to put in the effort needed to break the fate that he felt sealed him.

But maybe Lee could show him how.

“If you want to think that, you can,” Lee said after a few moments, his voice calm, “But I know what I’m capable of. And I know there are ways to get through this challenge in an honorable way.”

“Not by your standards, I’m sure,” Neji said, remembering how Lee insisted on being good too often. How mission after mission he was reminding them to take the high road, only trapping enemies where he could have killed him, thinking he was better because he figured out a way to fight, and fight fairly, despite lacking in any sense of useable chakra. But the ninja world wasn’t fair, and they couldn’t fight fair. Lee needed to accept that.

“Then I’ll prove it to you,” Lee said, his voice adamant and hopeful. Maybe this challenge would be the place to make Neji see reason, “I’ll find an Earth scroll for us. On my own.”

Neji did nothing to hide his rolling eyes, “You know the rules, if one of us is incapacitated, the entire team is out. All of us will fail.”

“That’s because you assume I’ll be incapacitated,” Lee said, “but I won’t.”

Neji was angry again, venom in his voice, “I won’t have you be the reason I fail.”

“Unfortunately, although we’re a team, we’re also individuals,” Lee said, “I’m making an individual choice that may have consequences for the whole team, but I believe in myself even if you don’t.”

“Fine,” Neji said bitterly, “Go off on your own. And when you’re the reason we fail, you’ll have to live that that.”

Lee nodded. He knew he was promising a lot, knew that he would rather stay together, find a way to work as a team. But he also knew that Neji needed to learn that things were possible, even in the most adverse of circumstances.

TenTen looked between the two of them, knew that this separation meant she’d have to choose which one she went with. The thing is, she saw both sides, knew both their histories and ideals and hopes. She saw merit in both, and even though they didn’t see it very often, knew the ways that they overlapped. And she wished, so deeply, that they could understand how similarly unfailing they both were in their beliefs. It didn’t matter though, because she had to choose.

She turned toward Lee, a sad look on her face, “I’m going with Neji. The Chunnin Exam are too important. We have to do what is necessary to pass, even when you don’t like it.”

Lee’s face fell only for a moment, but he recovered. Her lack of faith in him hurt more than Neji’s ever would.

“But here,” she said, turning to Neji and gesturing to the Heaven scroll he had retrieved from the dead mist ninjas, “give me that.”

Neji looked hesitant, didn’t want to let it go. It could be an advantage to them, having a spare scroll. But TenTen had chosen to come with him, and they could easily find the Earth scroll they needed. He handed the scroll to her and she put it in Lee’s hands.

“This way it’s fair,” she said, hoping this would make amends to Lee for her choosing Neji. “Let’s each take a Heaven scroll and agree to meet back, near the Tower, on the final night, okay?”

Lee nodded, seeing the sense in TenTen’s plan. Neji huffed and nodded too.

Within a few moments, Lee was gone, disappearing into the trees, and Neji and TenTen were headed in the opposite direction.

* * *

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had been running for most of the night. Each time they found themselves pausing to take a breath, or settling in anyway, they heard it – a soft whisper, with a hiss behind it, a stirring in the trees, a dark shadow moving through the moonlight. They never saw the snake again, the one that had surprised them earlier, but hints of it followed them all night.

At one point, Naruto couldn’t stand it anymore and stood his ground.

“Just attack us!” he shouted into the dark night. He was exhausted and tired of running and still didn’t understand why Sasuke had pulled them away from that other team, from their chance of getting another scroll. Ahead of Naruto by a few branches, Sakura and Sasuke hesitated.

Sasuke was still overwhelmed with feeling, with the carnal fear buried inside of him. They had been running for hours, but he still couldn’t shake it. He hated every second of it, this loss of control, the loss of his sense that he could handle whatever was thrown at him. And here Naruto was, being an idiot, only increasing Sasuke’s unease.

“Come on!” Naruto shouted, when his earlier shout was met with nothing. The latter was met with a faint hiss, the soft slithering along the branches, the flash of shadows darker than the trees.

It was Sakura who saw the eerie glow of the snake’s eyes, the first hint that it wasn’t just their imagination of its monstrosity following them.

“Naruto!” Sakura yelled as she jumped forward. She yanked at Naruto, pulling him from the tree, and behind them, in the dark, they heard a menacing snap. The massive branch Naruto had just been standing on thundered to the ground, the rough shards of it left behind, as if it had been ripped in half by something huge.

When they landed beside Sasuke, Naruto resisted Sakura’s pull, his exhaustion and irritation present in his voice, “What the hell Sakura! We need to stop whatever is after us!”

“The sun is coming up,” Sasuke said, nodding around him. He was right, a shallow gold starting to light up the trees. As the light increased, they looked around them, looking for hints for the beast that had stalked them all night. Other than the broken branch, there was nothing. The hissing and slithering sound had stopped; there was no hint of its glowing eyes, no sign to show them that the things they had heard throughout the night, the thing they had been running from, had been there at all.

“What the hell,” Naruto growled. As the sun light up more of the forest, there were less and less signs of it having been there.

“We all heard it,” Sakura said, confusion and worry in her voice.

Sasuke shook his head. He was exhausted and scared and felt nothing like himself. He felt like a little kid – soft and shriveled and scared.

“It’s mind games, or something,” Sasuke mumbled, “The forest played a trick on us.”

“But the snake existed!” Naruto yelled, “We all saw it at first. And then we heard it too. How do you explain what happened to that branch?”

Sasuke shook his head, too frustrated to answer.

Sakura looked between her teammates, trying to figure out what to do. Naruto was disgruntled and angry, sneering at the both of them. Sasuke…well she couldn’t explain Sasuke. For as long as she had known him, Sasuke had always been cool and confident and a little gloomy; it was this exact combination of attributes that made Sakura attracted to him, like a mystery she wanted to figure out. But she had never seen this look on his face before, like he was lost or trapped or broken in some way. She could tell he was trying to mask it, but it wasn’t really working. And she just wanted to do whatever she could to help him.

“Let’s try to find someplace to rest,” Sakura said.

“We can’t rest,” Sasuke said, “Not now, not in the open of the day.”

“We’ll find someplace to hide then,” Sakura insisted.

Sasuke shook his head and Sakura sighed. She looked toward Naruto.

He shrugged his shoulders, clearly disgruntled and uncaring, “I guess Sasuke’s right. Anyone could sneak up on us.”

Sakura closed her eyes, frustrated and tired herself. She knew they were right, but part of her didn’t care. Neither of her teammates were acting like themselves right now and she was too exhausted herself to deal with it. They all needed rest, they needed to bring the balance back to their dynamic and she didn’t care about their petty excuses.

“No,” Sakura said sternly, “We all need the rest, or we won’t survive the next four days. We can care about other teams and finding a scroll after.”

She shot a serious look at Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto was irritated, but surprised – Sakura had spoken to him that sternly plenty of times, but never to Sasuke, never addressing them both. Sasuke was surprised too, hadn’t expected Sakura to be the one to step up when he was out of it. Then again, there was a lot about Sakura that surprised him.

She saw that she had caught their attention, “Come on, we’re finding some place to hide.”

She dove into the woods and both her teammates followed after her, each of their minds scattered and distant for different reasons. I didn’t take long for them to come across a cliff face, a few caves at different levels. Sakura jumped to the highest one; Naruto and Sasuke followed.

The cave was cool and damp, but overall, it was big enough to accommodate all of them, deep and wide. The light from the fully risen sun poured into the mouth of it, casting light on some shrunken, shriveled creature near the entrance.

Naruto took a closer look, saw that they looked some type of insect, shuriken in their stomachs, sticky white stuff oozing out of the wounds. He tried not to gag.

“Gross,” he mumbled.

“Someone’s probably been here,” Sasuke said, realizing it was probably a good shelter, if other ninjas had thought so.

“I think it’s by design, meant to be a shelter,” Sakura said. She gestured toward the boulder beside the opening, realizing that if they pushed it in front of the opening, it would disguise them perfectly. “Help me.”

Naruto grumbled. He was exhausted and hungry and confused. He hadn’t imagined the forest being like this at all, had thought it would be more fighting and adventure and less running from shadows in the dark. He was annoyed how apathetic Sasuke was being and how bossy Sakura was being. Sasuke looked at Naruto and glared, too annoyed with his own inner crisis to care about what Naruto was going through. The pit of fear boiling in his stomach was easing, had been since they forest started to light up and the ghost of the snake had stopped haunting them. But it still wasn’t fast enough for his liking.

“Come on,” he said and helped Sakura. Naruto joined them and, in a moment, the cave was covered and dark.

Each of them settled into a different part of the cave, Naruto toward the back and Sasuke and Sakura on either side. The dark only lasted a moment before the cave was glowing, veins of dull blue light decorating the cave walls.

“They’re glow warms,” Sakura said, remembering when her father used to take her to see them, in the caves on the other side of the village. For the first time since she entered the forest, Sakura felt a sense of calm come over her – and the pure state of exhaustion too. She was nodding off within minutes of pointing out the glow warms.

Sasuke and Naruto didn’t say anything about the glowworms, each of them stewing in their own worries. However, it wasn’t long before the warm blue pulse of the worms eased them into sleep themselves, the team split, but not broken – not yet.

* * *

Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji eventually stopped running, this time feeling final, like they would finally settle. None of them really said anything, the horror of what they had witnessed running through them. They needed the rest, needed to push what they had seen back to the dark recesses of their mind. They agreed that one of them would take watch while the other two slept, switching off every two hours.

By mid-morning, they were as rested as they expected they would get sleeping on the hard ground and exposed to the forest. They sat beside each other, eating some berries that Chouji had foraged for them. He was the first one to break the silence.

“That Sand ninja was terrifying,” Chouji said, feeling the relief of the tension lift. Now they would have to deal with the weight of what they saw, but at least the moment had started.

“I just can’t believe he killed them so brutally,” Ino said, remembering the scattering of blood, the way he and his teammates just seemed to expect it, knew to grab the umbrellas. With a sick twist in her gut she realized it was because they were used to it, because that guy, Gaara, had done it before.

“He enjoyed it,” Shikamaru said, disbelief in his voice, remembering the dark, hungry look in Gaara’s eyes right before his sand crushed those rain ninjas.

“What I don’t get is why the other two didn’t stop him, they just stood there,” Ino said.

“They did stop him though,” Shikamaru said, remembering the pleading look on the girl’s face when she had convinced Gaara not to come after them. And he knew her name now –Temari. “He knew we were there. He was going to come after us and there was nothing we could’ve done to stop it if he did. But the other two stopped him.”

“I know,” Ino said, remembering the sureness that she was going to die in that moment, that it was going to end. The other two had stopped him from that, at least. “But before that, they just stood there.”

“Well, they were terrified of him,” Chouji said, remembering the open fear on the girl’s face, the resigned defeat on the other guy’s face.

“He threatened them too, don’t forget that,” Shikamaru added.

“Yeah, his own siblings,” Chouji said, still not wrapping his mind around how callously Gaara had told his teammates he would kill them. Teammates that weren’t just teammates either, but his siblings. Chouji shuddered at the thought.

“Yeah,” Ino said, seeing the situation with new eyes, imaging if Chouji and Shikamaru had threatened her so easily, “that’s messed up.”

None of them had siblings, but they felt close enough to each other, felt deep of enough connection that they’d consider each other siblings. And that pure hatred in Gaara’s eyes, the way he had looked at the other two with such utter disdain. None of them could ever imagine looking at each other like that.

Shikamaru wondered even more deeply than his other two teammates. He wondered about Temari, about what it had been like for her, to have brothers like hers as her siblings, to have one of them spew hatred at her so easily. Again, he couldn’t figure out why he had such worry stirring inside of him for this Sand Village girl, but he couldn’t get thoughts of her out of his mind. It was frustrating and too much, just like everything about this challenge was too much, troublesome and annoying. He just wanted it to be done.

But at least they had a scroll, and it would be over soon.

As soon as he thought this, he heard it, a subtle movement in the trees ahead of them. Chouji and Ino heard it too and jumped up, kunais at the ready. There was a careful shuffling in the bushes ahead and three familiar faces walked out, kunais in their hands and tension in their eyes – Kiba, Hinata, and Shino.

Somehow, between the preparation of the trap and the shuffling of the supplies within the bag into their pouches, Shino, Kiba, and Hinata had lost their map. While they had intended to get to the tower as quickly as they could, without the map, it was harder than it looked. The forest was dense, full of trees and outlets of water that all looked alike. Kiba, Shino, and Hinata were tracker ninjas, they knew they should be better than this. But the exhaustion of the long night of set up was getting to them. They needed to rest before they would be useful again.

But then they accidentally stumbled upon some familiar faces. The tension in the air was immediate. Each team frozen, but ready, if the other team attacked.

Hinata didn’t want to attack them, these people she somewhat considered friends. And they didn’t need to, they had the scrolls they needed. But maybe Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji didn’t.

Hinata looked back and forth to her teammates, knew they wouldn’t like that she was about to do. But it was the only way to find out. She slowly eased her kunai back into her pouch. Shikamaru tensed as she watched her hands. Hinata’s didn’t strike him as the member of this team who would attack first, but he had to be prepared. But then she saw what she was pulling out and felt a small bit of relief.

Hinata held out their Heaven and Earth scrolls, each of them firmly in one of her hands.

“Hinata, what are you doing?” Kiba growled, keeping his eyes on Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino. He didn’t trust them, no matter how far they went back in the academy.

Hinata nodded her head at him and turned back to the opposing team, “We already have both scrolls, so we’re not here to attack you.”

Shikamaru let out a breath and nodded to Ino. She pulled their two scrolls out of her pouch.

“We have ours two,” she said, flashing them at Kiba, Hinata, and Shino.

“Then there’s no reason of us to fight” Chouji said, his voice hopeful.

Hinata nodded her head and put their scrolls back into her pouch. Just as quickly as the situation became tense, it relaxed. Ino put away the scrolls and her weapons. Shikamaru sighed and sat back down. Chouji gave the others a little lopsided smile. Hinata returned his smile, just as gently. Kiba shook his head but relaxed anyway. Shino appreciated the calculated risk Hinata took.

“So how did you get your scroll? It’s barely been a day,” Ino asked.

“What,” Kiba said, his voice cocky, “You don’t think we’re good enough to get a scroll so quickly?”

Ino rolled her eyes, suddenly remembering how obnoxious Kiba could be. He was second just behind Naruto, in her opinion anyway.

“No, I was just curious,” her voice dripping with sass.

Kiba broke out into a smile and told the story. How they had used Shino’s slug knowledge to build a trap and lure another team in. He embellished the story here and there, making it seem like a much more exciting venture than it was. Hinata and Shino let him do it, knew he was best as telling their stories.

“Did you just leave them there to die?” Chouji asked, horrified by the idea that there were slugs in this forest whose slime could kill him.

“We were gonna, but Hinata convinced us otherwise,” his voice both teasing and appreciative at the same time.

“There’s no need for senseless killing,” Hinata said softly.

Shikamaru smirked a little, had forgotten just how sweet Hinata could be. But at the mention of senseless killing, he remembered Gaara, remembered how Temari and the other guy, her other brother, he assumed, said they already had enough scrolls. There was no reason he needed to kill the Rain ninjas, he just wanted to. Ino and Chouji’s minds were clouded over with the same thoughts.

“We got our scrolls off a Rain ninja team,” Shikamaru said.

“It was pretty easy, actually,” Chouji said, remembering that it only took them five minutes or so.

Ino scoffed, “Yeah, easy for both of you because I did all the heavy lifting.”

Shikamaru and Chouji chuckled, both knowing Ino would be reminding them of that for a long time.

“But what happened afterward, after we got the scroll, it was a lot scarier,” Shikamaru said.

They told the story then, each taking their own turn to describe the way Gaara had killed the Rain ninjas, the way he had enjoyed it, they way his teammates had begged him not to keep doing it. Unlike Kiba’s story, there were no embellishments, or no way to make themselves out as heroes, just the honest and dark fear of the situation.

“Woah, that’s fucked,” Kiba said, after listening to the whole thing.

“The girl was so nice to me, though,” Hinata said, her voice soft.

“What?” Shikamaru asked, confused but curious about what Hinata might have to say about Temari.

“It was just for a moment,” Hinata said, “While we were picking up supplies for this. She was nice to me then. I guess it just didn’t seem like she was the person to stand aside and watch something happen, like you said.”

Hinata remembered it, the kindness the girl had shown her in the line. But she had to remember that was just a moment, and moments didn’t make people.

“Well, she was scared,” Shikamaru said, his voice oddly defensive. He had no idea why he wanted to defend this girl, just that he did.

Ino gave Shikamaru a weird look, “It was scary for all of us.”

“It sounds like they’ve moved on to the tower, though,” Shino said, speaking for the first time since the teams converged.

“That was our plan too,” Kiba said, “to head to the tower today. But we probably need to rest first. We haven’t slept at all.”

“You could probably sleep in shifts, that’s what we did,” Chouji said, wanting to offer advice where he could.

“We lost our map though,” Hinata said, heat burning her face, “That’s another reason we haven’t found the tower yet.”

While they spoke, an idea was brewing in Shikamaru’s mind. Obviously neither teams wanted to fight each, and because they both had the scrolls needed, there was no reason to. But there was something else too. Seeing familiar faces had put Shikamaru at ease, just a little, erasing some of the horror of what he had seen the night before. He could sense the same thing in his teammates, an ease that they hadn’t felt since entering the forest.

“Maybe you could use ours?” Shikamaru said. Everyone looked at him, confused by the proposition.

“We were going to try to head to the tower today too. And who knows, maybe the Sand Ninjas weren’t the scariest thing in the forest. The more people we have working together, the better, I think,” he explained.

Hinata felt a warm rush push through her, “I think that would be nice, we can watch each other’s backs.”

Kiba and Shino didn’t agree as heartily as Hinata, but it made sense to them. They nodded at Shikamaru. Ino and Chouji felt the same, that if Shikamaru thought it was a good idea, they did too.

“Oh, what a sweet sentiment,” a voice said, deep and teasing.

All six of them looked up, at the hulking ninja who had somehow snuck up on them, two of his teammates, just as big and terrifying looking, flanking his sides. All of them wore Stone Village headbands and were decked out with weapons and eager grins.

Team 10 and Team 8 looked at each other, each of them clutching their kunai and getting ready to put that proposed team-up to work. 

* * *

Kabuto was annoyed, though he was quite good at not showing it. Frankly, he wished more thought had been put into the choice, more observation and tests. Wasn’t that the point of his little introduction, the little show so they would trust him, so they wouldn’t think he was associated with the Sound Village in anyway?

All nine of them had potential, Kabuto knew the stats. He was the one who did the research, who built their profiles, who created a worthy crop of candidates for his boss – the 16th generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation whose intuition at working together was better than any of the generations that came before them, the heir to the Hyuga clan, who had some hidden strengths despite her clan rejecting her. The only son of the current generation of the Inuzuka clan. A member of the Aburame clan whose logic and cunning matched Kabuto’s own. A kunoichi with one the highest IQs of any current genin. The last remaining member of the Uchiha clan. The boy who hid the nine-tailed fox inside of him. Of course, his boss had told him that Naruto Uzumaki was already out of consideration from the start, too many people would be crossed if they attempted to take the beast.

After Kabuto had met them and laid out their circumstance, the plan was to spend the five days watching and observing, to make an informed decision at the end. But his boss was jumping the gun, and even though he didn’t know who was chosen yet, he had his suspicions. After all, Orichimaru really liked his rare treasures.

Somewhere across the arena, the three Sound ninjas had just defeated another team. These they left injured and defenseless, easily bagging their scroll while leaving their bruised and broken bodies behind.

“Do you think we’ve done enough yet?” Kin, the girl of the team asked. Her pack was heavy with all their scrolls – two Earth scrolls and now, two Heaven scrolls. 

Zaku shrugged his shoulders, “Our orders were to have fun and whittle down the competition, I’d say we’re accomplishing that. Though I’d wish we knew the next steps already. That meeting was bullshit this morning.”

“Don’t you dare question him,” Dosu said angrily.

Zaku put his hands up, his expression mocking and voice sarcastic, “I would never mock our fearless leader, he who is so wise and powerful.”

There was a sudden rush in the air and Zaku was slammed into the tree behind him, as if an invisible force had shoved him. Dosu glared at him as Zaku recovered.

“You fucker,” Zaku said, his voice tense. He stood up and looked ready for a fight.

“Boys,” Kin said, the casualness in her voice indicating just how often this happened, “Is this really worth fighting about?”

Zaku let out a sigh. Kin of was right. He was tired and knew, even though he didn’t want to admit it, that picking a fight with Dosu would only get him hurt.

Dosu, on the other hand, looked at both of them seriously, “It will always be worth fighting about. Orichimaru saved all of us. He gave us new life and meaning and a mission. We’re to follow it no matter how trivial you think it is.”

He turned then and dove into the forest, the weight of his words sinking into his two teammates, remembering the times they had been young and scared and lost and alone. Orichimaru had been their savior. Dosu was right. They would do whatever was needed to make his mission successful.

Back in the village, the Sand Siblings were returning to their rooms. They were instructed to rest until the end of the second portion of the exam – on advantage of finishing early.

When they reached the tower, they opened their scrolls and in a puff of smoke, there was Baki, staring coldly at them.

“You weren’t supposed to finish yet,” he said, his voice sharp.

Gaara shot him a glare that made him fumble a little bit, but he held his ground.

“Yeah well, we got tired and had already accomplished the mission, twice over, so…” Kankuro said with a shrug.

“We have allies who were expecting us to stay in the whole time,” Baki said tensely, his voice dropping to a low whisper.

“That’s Rasa’s priority, not ours,” Temari said, glaring at him, “Besides, we’re not really needed until the final rounds, right?”

Baki opened his mouth to say something but closed it. She was right. The plan didn’t involve them until the end, when it all came together. But still, showing up for their allies was expected even if they were not yet deployed within the plans.

“Are you going to move out of our way?” Gaara said darkly.

It startled Baki and he moved, making way for the Sand Siblings to leave, to spend a few days resting while everyone else still fought. Gaara spent the days wondering the Leaf Village, something inside of him sick with a curious fascination, about the bright, merry place this was – about how they could crush it. Kankuro slept, restless sleep, filled with nightmares of bloody rain and Gaara crushing him. He woke up in a cold sweat again and again, wishing for different siblings.

Temari walked to one of the darker corners of the Leaf Village, where the buildings were run down and old, where the people look tired and haggard, where it lacked all the brightness and shine of the other parts of the village. This was her only chance, and she had to take it.

The herbalist was exactly where she said she would be, crouched in the corner of a dark alley. Money and words were exchanged quickly, a crushed brown bag in Temari’s hands.

She reached in, pulled out the vial, the bloodred liquid inside sticky and thick.

“Be careful girl, I’ve warned you of what it can do,” the old woman said.

“I know,” Temari said as a bright smile lit up her whole face and happiness bubbled inside of her. The first hint of genuine hope she had felt in years. 

* * *

Two more days passed, so quickly that everyone left in the forest hardly noticed.

Team 8 and Team 10 found out they could work together well, even if in very different styles. The team that attacked them was defeated in minutes and so was another team, that came after them. They tried to make their way to the tower, but things kept cropping up. Another team blocking their path, a fearsome creature emerging from the dark and chasing them to the farthest reaches away from the tower, and a brief hour-long stint of sickness from some ill-foraged plants. It was if some force were keeping them in, blocking their passageway to the tower. As if Fate had other plans for them.

Just as they found their path blocked for the tower so did Neji and TenTen. Despite his enhanced vision, it took them a whole other day before they found another team. Despite an easy fight, it was worthless. The other team’s scroll had been stolen already, and there was nothing they could give them. Meanwhile, Lee ran into the same luck. He couldn’t find another team, but he did find a few more hidden creatures, great beasts that he saved some more innocent animals from.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto rested, but by the second night, they were still out of sorts – as if the dark visions of the snake on their first night had thrown their dynamic out of balance indefinitely. Naruto stayed grumpy, could not shake this boiling feeling of anger and resentment inside of him. Sasuke was not frightened anymore, but he felt a hurried sense of unease, a horrid feeling that something dark would happen at any second. And Sakura felt torn, between wanting to survive, between wanting to take care of her teammates, to want for this all to be over. They stumbled over each other and through the lines that Fate had arranged for them, the restless path of the next few days leading them to what would come next.

Everyone was hiding, had learned, through the first night and day, that this forest was full of more nightmares and death they could imagine. If the first night was an all-out battle, a fierce marker of what they could do to each other, the following days were a mark of how quickly they learned survival is often synonymous with invisibility, with quiet, with not starting any action. But this silence was fleeting, the quiet stitches of Fate and Chance and the other forces weaving together a tapestry that would bring them so much more.

Take a breath, the real fight is about to begin.


End file.
